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REPORT 



AMERICAN SYSTEM 



GRADED FEEE SCHOOLS 



BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND VISITORS 



COMMON SCHOOLS. 



H. H. BARNEY, 

PRINCIPAL OF THE CENTRAL SCHOOL. 



PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE BOARD. 



CINCINNATI: 

PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE DAILY TIMES, WALNUT STREET, ABOVE PEARL. 

1851. 



V 



/ 



REPORT 



ON THE 



AMERICAN SYSTEM 



OF 



GRADED FREE SCHOOLS. 



BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND VISITORS 



COMMON SCHOOLS, 

^ X BY 

H. H. BARNEY, 

PRINCIPAL OF THE CENTRAL SCHOOL, 



PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE BOARD. 



3 CINCINNATI: 

rRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE DAILY TIMES, WALNUT STREET, ABOVE FBAfil. 

1851. 



School Department. 

Cincinnati, March 21, 1851. 
Extracts from the Minutes of the Board of Trustees and Visitors, Jan'y 7, 1851. 
Resolved, That H. H. Barney be requested to report to this Board upon 
the History and present state of the different High Schools of the United 
States, their mode of government, and manner of being conducted. 

January 21, 1851, 
A Report of Mr. Barney on the History, condition, and mode of govern- 
ment of the different High Schools in the the United States, was received 
and referred to the committee on Central Schools for examination and pub- 
lication. 

W. Leuthstrom, Secretary. 



To the Board of Trustees and Visitors of Common Schools: 

Gentlemen : —The commhtee on Central Schools having examined the 

Report of Mr. Barney in relation to High Schools in the United States, find 

It to contain a wide range of information pertaining to the government, 

&c., of such Schools, and have therefore taken much pleasure in carrying 

out the order of the Board to have tlie same published. 

Wm. Goodman, 

,. , Chairman Com. of Central School. 

CiNCTNNATi, March, 1851. 



PREFATORY REMARKS. 



Before giving an exposition of the topics embraced in the resolu- 
tion of the Board, it may be proper to say a word concerning the 
origin of those efforts which have given such a wonderful impulse to 
the cause of general education in this country, for the last fifteen 
years. 

Previous to 1 830, the common schools had remained almost sta- 
tionary for several years; or, as Hon. Horace Mann remarked in his 
first Annual Report, "the common school system had fallen into a 
state of general unsoundness and debility; a great majority of the 
school-houses were not only ill adapted to encourage mental eflFort, 
but in many cases, were absolutely perilous to the health and symme- 
trical growth of the children ; the schools were under a sleepy super- 
vision ; many of the most intelligent and wealthy of our citizens had 
become estranged from their welfare, and many of the teachers were 
but poorly qualified for the performance of the delicate and difficult 
task committed to their hands." The attention of the public had 
not been called to the importance of having teachers specially trained 
for their calling, nor of having some more effectual means for super- 
vising their labors, and securing for them the co-operation of the 
public, as well as the powerful aid of the government. The grand 
idea seemed to have been overlooked, that the great end of public 
instruction was not merely to have schools, but to have good schools ; 
schools which should awaken mind and cultivate good principles. 

The great and all-important fact had been almost entirely over- 
looked, that a child has powers and sentiments which, when properly 
cultivated, predestine him to advance forever in knowledo-e and 
virtue, but powers which would be stifled and perverted in their very 
infancy without proper culture. Indeed, every body seemed to acqui- 
esce in the belief that the common schools were doing well enough, 
or, at least, as well as they were capable of doing. 



[ 4 J 

About this time, statesmen and philanthropists became impressed 
with the belief that our civil and religious institutions were in danger; 
that the political heavens were gathering darkness, and the moral 
sky becoming daily more and more obscured. Eiirope was full of 
commotion and fearful agitation. The iron heel of Russia was on 
the neck of prostrate Poland ; France was a moral volcano ; the Ger- 
man states were restless, and the Irish people were getting tired of 
England's five hundred years of tyranny and misrule. The conse- 
quence was, that Europe was pouring in upon our country an increa- 
sing tide of her ignorant, superstitious, degraded and oppressed 
population. Many thought a momentous crisis was at hand, and 
that something should be speedily done to countervail the baleful 
influences which appeared to be sapping the very foundations of our 
institutions. 

Public attention Avas naturally turned to our common schools as 
the palladium of our liberties ; but, upon investigation, they were 
found, as already stated, insufficient barriers against the destructive 
tide that was i-olling in upon our country. 

There was a want of interest in them on the part of parents and 
others; the change of teachers was quite too frequent; the pecuniary 
streno-th of the school districts was greatly impaired by an excessive 
multiplication of them; the diversity and frequent change of text- 
books was legion ; teachers were not qualified ; school sessions were 
extremely short, and the vacations long ; a regular system of super- 
vision was either entirely wanting or inefficient and sleepy; and, 
above all, the schools were not distributed into grades or departments, 
nor was a suitable course of study prescribed and adhered to. 

The deficiencies and evils in the system being ascertained, and the 
appropriate remedies clearly and eloquently pointed out by the great 
pioneers in the good cause, Horace Mann, Bishop Potter, Henry Bar- 
nard and others, the people began the work of reform in good ear- 
nest, and a very high degree of success has thus far crowned their 
efforts. A new and noble system has thus been wrought out within 
the last fifteen years, which maybe denominated the "Republican 
System of Union or Graded Free Schools," and which will be con- 
sidered first in this Report. The most marked change which has 
taken place in the educational system of this country during the 
period just refered to, and to which more of its improvements are 
owino- than to all other appliances combined, is the distribution of 
our common schools into the following grades, viz: 1. Primary 



[ 5 ] 

Schools; 2. Secondary or Intermediate Schools; 3. Grammar Schools; 
4. Central High Schools — the whole denominated a Union School, 
or a System of Graded Schools. 

The origin, design, and advantages of a Union School system will 
constitute the second topic in this Repoit, and, in discussing it, we 
shall consider, at some length, the deficiencies and evils of the old 
District system, and then endeavor to show how the new system 
affords a remedy. As a Central High School is only a branch of 
the Union or Graded School system, and as they originated about the 
same time, and were designed to accomplish the same ends, we shall 
discuss them together in this Report. A Union School, with all the 
departments in one building, is particularly adapted to populous rural 
districts, and towns and cities not exceeding six or eight thousand 
inhabitants; and a Central High School, occupying a separate build- 
ing, to the larger class of cities, such as New York, Philadelphia, 
Boston, Cincinnati, Providence, <fec. A Union School is nothing 
more nor less than a graded system of common schools, w4th a High 
School Department attached; and they are generally preferred in 
those villages and cities in which the pupils pursuing higher branches 
are not numerous enough to warrant the expense of a separate build- 
ing, and a separate corps of teachers. In a Union School, one teach- 
er, and sometimes two, are employed in the High School Department. 
A Central High School usually occupies a separate building and is 
in charge of a distinct corps of teachers, as is the case in the Cincin- 
nati, Columbus, Providence, and other High Schools. 

There is a difference of opinion among those who are posted up in 
such matters, in which of the eighty cities in the United States having 
Central High Schools, the best model of a school system, and espe- 
cially of a Central High School, is to be found. So far as I have 
been able to gather up expressions of opinion on this subject, I am 
inclined to think that the system of Providence, R. I., taken as a 
whole, has generally received the preference. An outline of its 
organization is subjoined to this Report. In some particulars, how- 
ever, several gentlemen experienced in such things, and from eastern 
cities too, have awarded the palm to the Cincinnati School system ; 
I allude to the " Classification and course of study for the Common 
Schools of Cincinnati," the manner in which promotions are made 
from one department to another, and to the organization and general 
regulations of the Central School. There is no Central School in the 
United States organized precisely like that of Cincinnati. In Provi- 



[61 

dence, male and female pupils, though occupying the same build- 
ing, never recite in the same class. They are, however, brought 
into the same room together for the purpose of certain general exer- 
cises, and to receive lectures on some of the natural sciences. The 
plan of organization is the " Horizontal System." The pupils remain 
in the school throe years. During the first year they occupy the first 
story of the building ; the second year, the second story ; the third 
year, the third story ; and each class during the year makes all its 
recitations to the same teacher. Hence the origin of the term " Hor- 
izontal System ;" the school being divided, as it were, into three 
grades, by horizontal planes, and each grade moving to a higher 
plane once a year until it graduates. Female pupils recite exclusive- 
ly to female instructors. 

In the Hartford High School both sexes not only recite in the same 
classes and to different teachers in different subjects of study, but are 
even seated in the same grand room, from which they deploy to the 
different recitation rooms during the day. In this school there is a 
mingling of male and female pupils in the most extended sense of the 
word. They enter the building, however, by separate yards and 
doors, and have separate play grounds. The system of classification 
and recitation is the " Departmental." 

In the New York Free Academy and the Philadelphia High School, 
the admissions are semi-annual, and the system in each is the " Depart- 
mental." In Boston, Mass., the High School is virtually two schools, 
viz : the Classical High School, and the English High School. In the 
former the pupils are fitted for College, in the latter for the va- 
rious avocations and industrial pursuits of life. The pupils are ad- 
mitted on examination, at stated periods, from every part of the city, 
whether they come from the common schools or not. The system 
is partly "Horizontal " and partly " Departmental." 

The organization and arrangement of the Cincinnati central school 
difters in some respects from them all. Male and female pupils attend 
the same school as in Hartford, are seated in separate rooms, as in 
Providence, but, as in the Hartford high school, they recite in the 
same classes, when the number of each sex pursuing the same 
study, renders it practicable. In the distribution of the sev- 
eral subjects of study among the teachers, and in the general 
organization, the " Departmental" system, as in the New York Free 
Academy and in the Philadelphia High School, has been preferred 
and adopted. 



[7 ] 

It seems proper in this connection to specify some of the peculiar 
advantages claimed for each of these systems by their respective ad- 
vocates. It is argued on behalf of the "Horizontal" system, that 
the pupils, occupying the same rooms, i-eciting continually to the same 
teacher, and subject to the same rules and principles of discipline for 
an entire year, can be better managed than where they move from 
room to room for the purpose of reciting to different teachers, as is 
the case in the " Departmental" system. 

" That having the High School thus divided intosia: small schools," 
says the Principal of the Providence High School, "produces a 
quietness favorable to the cultivation of good manriers, correct taste and 
thorough discipline ; each pupil being desirous of promotion to a new 
room and a new teacher, makes greater efforts to do well. Each 
teacher being responsible for the cleanliness and order of one room, 
he is more likely to be efficient, than when all are seated in one grand 
room. We think we can, in this way, educate our pupils quicker, 
cheaper, and belter. Other teachers entertain different opinions on this 
point." 

The advocates of the other system contend that, where the pupils 
remain constantly in the same room, and recite to the same teacher, 
there is a great tendency to relapse into dull and monotonous habits ; 
that the ability to impart instruction in a lively and impressive man- 
ner, is, to some extent, a natural gift, and that teachers often possess 
this gift in a high degree, in teaching some subjects, but are 
quite destitute of it in others ; that the "Departmental " system ena- 
bles the Superintendent of the school to take advantage of this fact in 
detailing the business for his assistants ; and that a change of rooms 
and teachers imparts variety and spirit to the exercises, and promotes 
the vivacity and energy of the pupils. 



SECTION 1. 

THE REPUBLICAN SYSTEM OF UNION, OR GRADED FREE SCHOOLS. 

Have Americans any Educational System ? 

The question may perhaps be asked, whether the people of the Uni- 
ted States have any thing, in the matter of education, peculiar to them- 
selves — any sj'^stem whose organization, means of support, and modes 
of control, characterize it as essentially democratic ; and whose general 
form would naturally spring from, and shape itself to, the republican 
principles of their government. The qiiestion is a proper one, and 
arises from the conviction that each distinct form of government, si- 
lently, but irresistibly, moulds to itself all the institutions which ori- 
ginate under it. The truth of this conviction is easily demonstrated, 
so far as our own government is concerned, for our government is 
wrought out directly from the will of the people, as are also all our 
institutions. Springing from the same source, they must have many 
other properties in common. All the features, therefore, which dis- 
tinguish our government from others, we may expect to see distinctly 
imprinted not only on our style of thought, our social manners and 
habits of business, but also xipon all the schemes for educational im- 
provement which engage the attention of our people. They all alike 
originated from republicanism, and all alike bear its broad seal on 
their front. 

The settlement of its great political questions is the first labor of a na- 
tion, but as soon as these are adjusted, its intellectual cultivation im- 
mediately commences. Our intellectual culture, indeed, began with 
our existence ; but it was not until within the last fifteen or twenty 
years, that the spirit of democracy began sensibly to diffuse itself 
through our educational schemes, and, at this day, we see, rapidly 
developing itself, a general system of education, peculiar to us as a peo- 
ple, perfectly symmetrical in all its parts, and in grand harmony with 
the form of government we are proud to call our own. 

This system we shall designate as the American System of Graded 
Free Schools, though somewhat late in its development, it is the gen- 



[ 9 ] 

uine production of our domestic principles. It i s the spontaneous effort 
of American action to gather around itself a means of intellecual cultiva- 
tion, extensive enough in its ramifications to come into contact with, and 
satisfy every want, and flexible enough to satisfy eveiy desire, eman- 
ating from the great body of the people. It is young America mov- 
ing herself, and shakinor off the forms of education which the iron 
monarchies of other days had fitted to themselves, and creating her- 
self one which should perfectly embody her own free spirit, and per- 
mit its minutest workings to be seen and felt in the loneliest corners 
of the land. 

For the outlines of this system, we naturally turn to our largest 
towns and cities. There the freedom of thought and deed secured 
hy law to a dense population, render the means of education absolutely 
necessary, as a safeguard against anarchy — not such partial means 
as private competence can procure, or as private munificence can be- 
stow, or has been deemed sufficient in those countries where the pow- 
er of the throne controls the will of the mass, but means ample enough 
to stretch its arms from the son of the richest to the son of the beggar, 
and noble enough to be a common pride to all. Our colleges and 
other higher seminaries of learning, strange as it may seem, were 
established, endowed, and conducted not with any particular view to 
their adaptation to the republican system of which they were to form 
a part, but rigidly after the models of Oxford University and other 
European institutions, which leaning upon a royal purse and basking 
in aristocratic smiles, were no better fitted to serve the interests of a 
repulican nation, than a belief in the divine right of kings was to pro- 
duce republicans. The establishment of our highest grade of schools on 
a basis peculiar to themselves, with but little relation to the wants of 
the masses, led to the adoption of that wretched, misshapen, loose 
jointed system which is seen in the private schools, academies, 
charity schools, denominational schools, and schools of all other kinds 
t aken collectively. There is but little compactness or economy, or 
beauty, or efficiency about it. It is an image with a head of brass, 
thighs of iron and feet of mud. 

If it be true that this system is ill suited to the genius of our people 
and the spirit of the times, we shall expect to see some signs of decay be- 
tokening its fall and the establishment of something newer and stronger. 
Our colleges all over the country, are complaining of a want of patron- 
age. While our population has been increasing with a rapidity almost 
beyond precedent, the annual College Reports show that the aggregate 
number of students has, during the last few years, remained stationary 



[ 10] 

or retrograded. The late important changes in Brown University — 
changes impeiatively demanded by the wants of a people conscious 
that their hands and brains can never be sinecures to them — and the 
great favor which these changes have met with from the guardians of 
collegiate instruction in other places, show too plainly to be misun- 
derstood, the drift of the educational movements of the day. In Mas- 
sachusetts the entire system of Academies, which were in fact little 
more than door steps to colleges, and which considered it a far more 
glorious deed to send up a salutatorian than to impart intellect- 
ual vigor and efficiency to a race of farmers and artizans, has dwin- 
dled down to a shadow. In the rest of the New England States where 
the spirit of educational progress has penetrated, academies and all 
other schools which are dissevered, either by their grade or conditions 
of attendance, from the schools for the masses, are fast passing away. 
In the state of New York, the decrease in the number of Academies* 
for the last si.v years has been more than thirty per cent. In Ohio, 
whose educational demands have increased in unparalleled ratio with- 
in the last five years, no new academies are being built, and the old 
ones are rapidly giving way to a new better state of things. 

We now naturally inquire what new agency has sprung up to sup- 
ply the fast increasing educational want 1 The children have turn- 
ed away from the dried breasts of the old collegiate system, and an- 
other mother must give them nourishment. In the city of 
Boston, the Common School, the American School, free as the air of 
heaven, founded on the wants and hopes of the multitude, with its 
grasp upon the myriad arms that move the government, has risen high 
above all opposition and stands without a rival. Aristocratic schools, 
denominational schools and all other schoiils not, like it, thoroughly 
imbued with the spirit which animates our governmental institutions, 
have moved from its path as from the tread of a mammoth. The 
secret of their wonderful success is undoubtedly to be sought for in 
their complete adaptation to the wants of a republican people. In the 
Boston schools we see one of the finest developments of the 
American Eucational System. So complete and symmetrical in 
structure are they that the human being there receives the first rudi- 
mental instructions, and is then led along and upward by gradations 
as simple and beautiful as its own growth, until it steps forth an A- 
merican citizen complete. Throughout Massachusetts and New Eng- 
land generally, the system is developing itself in what are termed 
Union Schools, which are rapidly spreading themselves on every 



[ 11 ] 

side. By the promises now given, ihey will in a few years supersede 
every other means of education, and give to the United States a sys- 
tem eminently democratic in its origin and influence, peculiarly fitted 
to the spirit of our people and the nature of our country, economical, 
low enough to reach the lowest, and high enough to cover the tallest. 
In Philadelphia, the system, headed by a Central High School, has 
completely silenced all competition. All other schemes are like 
sickly plants under the boughs of a majestic oak. 

Perhaps, we shall not find anywhere a more complete develop- 
ment of the American System than in the Public Schools of Phila- 
delphia. There the system seems to have taken the precise form into 
which the educational tendencies of the age, and the peculiar spirit 
of our governmental institutions would mold it. In them, we see 
the culmination of our educational strtiggle. In New Orleans, after 
ineffectual efforts for several years to make the old system answer the 
purposes of public education, the new one was introduced. Although 
at first it seemed to languish, it gradually gathered strength, and now 
the schools are rapidly coming up to the first rank. They have won 
their way to general favor; and all other means of education are fast 
dwindling away. In Missouri, there is something quite interesting 
connecied with the progress of school education. The most strenu- 
ous efforts Avere put forth, both by private individuals and the State, 
to bolster up the old collegiate system. Thousands of dollars of the 
public money were expended, year after year, to continue in active 
and efficient operation its large class of seminaries of the highest 
grade. The fact was overlooked, that plans of education, to be of 
value, must include the great mass, and not be confined to that small 
number whom ample pecuniary means, and abundant leisure time 
enable to spend years and money in training the intellect. The 
result, as a careful consideration of the intimate reladon springing up 
between our educational schemes and our government, would have 
disclosed, was almost a total failure. Th:- colleges would not live, 
and the people would be educated. At present thn American system 
is spreading with great rapidity throughout the entire State. It 
seemed to rise almost spontaneously. No particixlar exertions were 
put forth to set it in operation. The want seems to have been 
generally felt, and by this means to have been completely satisfied. — 
In St. Louis, the public schools do not hold the first place in the 
public estimation. The reason that they do not, is probably due to 
the fact, that before the educational tendency of the age had fully 



[12 ] 

disclosed itself, an individual of high rank as a teacher, of great 
energy of character, and invincible det; rminaii n, coupled with as 
liberal views of education as private interest would permit, established 
a private school, with almost princely accomodations, and main- 
tained it at such a high degree of excellence in mental and moral 
training, that th? patronage of the city was given to it. To go to 
Wyraan's school, is to take beforehand, the strongest surety that 
whatever of a man exists in the boy will be fttlly and properly devel- 
oped. There can be little doubt, however, that the time is not 
far distant when the public schools of St. Louis, — like those 
of Philadelphia and Boston, will be supreme arbiters in mat- 
ters pertaining to the intellectual and moral training of the great 
mass. 

The development of the American System is not confined any 
longer to the cities alone. Throughout all the northern states, and 
large portions of the West and Northwest, including all north of the 
southern Virginia line, embracing no less than seventeen of the most 
active, thriving of the United States, this system is showing itself 
most palpably and promisingly. The detached and jealous districts 
into which the towns, large and small, are divided, are beginning to 
unite again, and consolidate their forces. They begin to see that 
the strongest laws are those which education enacts. They begin to 
take pride in providing accomodations which will invite their 
children to learning, and make them dread the infamy of ignorance. 
The teacher, instead of being continually made to feel that his occu- 
pation is a sign manual that he is absolutely fit for nothing else, is 
raised in his own estimation and that of others, and has the pleasure 
of knowing that in the minds of the great and good his is a calling 
worthy of all praise, and that to be a complete teacher is greater than 
to be a king. 

One of the strongest and most pleasing features of this system, is 
its universality. Does our government dispense its blessings to all. 
without regard to rank, or sex, or condition — so does this. The 
great dispenser of the riches of freedom, it opens its treasures alike 
to all ; and the rich and the poor — the native and the foreigner, may 
come and take their fill. It is acknowledged to be an instrumentality 
designed to secure the public good ; and hence it is supported at the 
public expense. One important feature is its flexibility. Essen- 
tially a means for securing the highest benefits to the individual and 
to society, it is capable of assuming any particular form which shall 



[ 13 ] 

adapt it to its end. If the pros[>erity of the man, and the general 
interests of our particular form o ' government require the pupils to 
understand something of ihe nature of our government, without the 
necessity of studying the Greek of Plato's Republic, the po|)ular will 
has only to announce it, and it is done If the progress of the sci- 
entific world has disclosed a new branch of knowledge, the scholar 
can at once he made acquainted with it, though the subtleties of 
Aristotle may resist dislodgment from their ancient stand on the desk 
of the student. Another prominent peculiarity is the scope which it 
affords for the practical application to education of one of the grandest 
characteristics of nearly all the departments of modern toil — we 
mean the division of labor. To this, in a great degree, is due the 
wonderful facility with which modern business corporations have 
laid their hands upon every branch of human diligence, and be- 
stowed upon the world the comforts and luxuries of life. Introduced 
into our schemes for education, it produces results almost as aston- 
ishing as the advent of the spinning jenny in the manufacture of 
cloth. The small, low, four-roofed despicable building into which, 
during three or four months of the year, dozens of shivering pupils 
of all ages and attainments, are huddled together, is beginning to 
give way to a structure on which the eye of the wayfarer may 
dwell with pleasure and pride. The pupils are classified, and a 
teacher procured, who is adapted to his duties, and chaos is re- 
duced to order. 

Another feature is the adaptation of this system to meet the wants 
of our republican government. Hitherto the reciprocal influence of 
our education, and our system of government has been too much 
overlooked. It is not too much to say, that if the blessings of the 
iree institutions we now enjoy are ever perpetuated, it will be by the 
influence of our educational systems. The studies of our youth 
press with startling rapidity upon the performance of our political 
duties as men. To meet the wants of a people who make the laws 
they obey, this system has sprung up, nor will it go down until 
the stately columns of the American Anthroparchy have mingled 
in despairing confusion with the similar remains of Greece and 
Rome. 



SECTION II. 



UNION OR GRADED SCHOOLS. 



A Union School is so denominated from the consolidation of two 
or more small school districts into one. The plan is admirably 
adapted to large villages or towns, and to small cities ; it can also be 
introduced into the more populous rural districts. In most cases a 
Union School embraces four departments, or grades of scholars — 
namely : Primary, Intermediate or Secondary, Grammar, and 
Central or High School. 

In general, but one building is provided for a Union School — the 
four departments occupying different rooms in it. In some cities, 
three grades of buildings are provided — one for the Primary, or 
Primary and Intermediate together — one for the Intermediate and 
Grammar, or Grammar alone — and another for the Central or High 
School. In Cincinnati there are two grades of school edifices — 
namely: the Common School Houses, in which are convened all the 
grades of pupils, from the Primary to the Grammnr School inclu- 
sive, and tlie Central School building. 

In Buffalo, they have, at present, but one building for the four 
grades ; but in Boston, Providence, and some other cities, there are 
three grades of school edifices. 

In the country towns and villages, they seldom have but one 
building for the accomodation of a Union School, whether it embrace 
three or four departments. In a few instances, however, where the 
territory embraced by the Union district is quite extensive, there is 
an edifice near the geographical center, for the accomodation of the 
Grammar and High School departments, with small houses, or rooms, 
for the Primary departments, near the extremes. It may be remarked 
in this connection, that a school is just as essentially Union in its 
character, whether each of the departments occupy the same, or a 
diflTerent building ; the only difference being, that in one case, 
when the pupils are promoted from one grade to another, they also 
pass into a different building, instead of a different room merely. 



[ 15 ] 

In discussing tlie merits of a Union or graded school system, we 
shall make no distinction on account of this circumstance. 

In a recent visit to the Public Schools of New York, Philadelphia, 
Brooklyn, New Haven, Hartford, Boston, Providence, Albany, 
Rochester, BuflPalo, and some of the larger towns and villages, in this 
and other States, the advantages of the Union School system over 
others, was carefully observed, with a view to discuss its merits, and 
present its claims at the Annual Meeting of the Ohio State Teachers' 
Association. 

The superior order, arrangements, and discipline of Union Schools, 
the thorough and systematic instruction, the accuracy and spirit of 
the recitations, as well as the cheerfulness, animation, neatness, and 
pleasing deportment of the pupils, confirmed our previous opinion of 
the admirable adaptation of this system to cities, to the larger villa- 
ges, and the more thickly-settled rural districts. Before proceeding 
to specify, in detail, the peculiar advantages of this, over the common 
district system, some of the disadvantages, or evils of the latter, will 
be mentioned. The subdivision of territory into very small districts, 
embracing but a very small number of inhabitants, draws after it the 
calamitous consequences of stinted means, and, of course, cheap 
schoolhouses, cheap teachers, short sessions, and poor schools. — 
"Under this weakning process," says Mr. Mann, "many of our 
children have fared like Southern fruits in a Northern clime, Avhere, 
owing to the coldness of the soil, and shortness of the season, they 
never more than half ripen. Immature fruits at the close of the 
year, are not only valueless, but they sometimes breed physical dis- 
eases ; but such diseases are a blessing compared to those moral 
distempers which must be engendered, when immature minds, 
fermenting with unsound principles, are sent forth into the com- 
munity." 

" Such a system," as is very justly remarked by Bishop Potter, 
"appears to be obnoxious to the most serious objections. It calls 
together in one apartment, and under the supervision of but one 
teacher, children of every age and grade of attainment ; and these 
so divide the labors and distract the attention of their instructor, 
that a large portion of his energies is wasted." It tends to multiply 
classes to such an extent that his whole time is frittered away in 
hearing hurried recitations. No opportunity is afforded for explana- 
tion and illustration; none for indirect, collateral and oral instruction; 
none for pointing out the practical bearings and utility of the subject 



[16 ] 

taught ; none for awakening and disciplining the mind of the pupil, 
by a searching and skillful examination into the amount of his 
knowledge, and the processes by which he acquires it. Under such 
a system, the pupil's efforts are reduced to the mere act of remem- 
bering, and the teacher's to that of hearing him repeat by rote ; many 
exercises, admirably adapted to interest and improve small children, 
are precluded by the presence of large scholars; — the discipline fails 
in adapting itself with skill and precision to the wants and capacities 
of those of any particular age, owing to the mixed and hetrogeneous 
character of the school ; — many important and practical subjects of 
study are shut out for the want of time to attend to them. There can 
be no regular, systematic, permanent course of study, owing to the 
shortness of the sessions, and the transient character of the teachers ; 
young children are deprived, when most they need it, of the genial 
influence of fema e care and culture, at least during the winter 
months. The more respectable and affluent, on account of the low 
condition of the schools under such a system, are induced, and, in 
some cases, compelled to send their children to private schools, thus 
separating in early life those who are destined soon to act together on 
the great platform of equal rights and privileges, The standard of 
instruction is not only deteriorated, but its expensiveness is materially 
increased, by requiring three or four buildings to be erected and kept 
in repair, when one would be sufficient, and three or four teachers, — 
all males, perhaps, — to be maintained, when a less number, possessing 
far higher qualifications, might be procured for a less sum in the ag- 
gregate ; finally, under such a system, there can be no division of 
labor, which is quite as important in education as in the production of 
wealth ; for we might with as much wisdom require cotton to be 
picked, cared, spun, woven, bleached and dressed, by one machine, 
or by one person, as that children of different ages and attainments, 
as well as dispositions, should be successfully governed and instructed 
by one teacher, where all are thrown promiscuously together in one 
room. The inconveniences, defects, and evils of the common district 
system, msiy be summed up as follows: 1. Insufficient playgrounds. 
2. Incommodious and unsightly school houses. 3. Inexperienced, 
imcompetent teachers. 4. Short school sessions. 6. The introduc- 
tion into a single room, of pupils of different ages, and far diffisrent 
grades of attainment. 6. Great multiplication of classes, and con- 
sequently, inefficient recitations. 7. The necessity of omitting many 
exercises designed to awaken, interest and improve the minds of the 



[17 ] 

younger pupils. 8. The impossibility of adopting a system of dis- 
cipline suited to pupils so widely different in age and other circum- 
stances. 9. The preclusion of important subjects of study on 
account of the multiplication of classes. 10. The impracticability 
of introducing a regular course of study, and a system of exercises 
adapted to the different pupils of various ages and grades. 11. The 
diminution of female teachers during the winter months, and the 
consequent removal of very small children from under their kind care 
and protecting guardianship. 12. The separation of the children of 
the poor from those of the opulent, thereby giving to the latter the 
additional advantage of a superior education ; for the opulent can 
send their children abroad to school, and they will do it in mostca^es, 
if the schools near home are of an inferior character. 13. The de- 
pression of the standard of education, and an increase of its expen- 
siveness. 14. Deprivation of the advantages of gradation, division 
of labor, and the exciting stimulus consequent upon the hope and 
desire of promotion, which are far greater in a properly classified 
Union, than in an ordinary district school, however competent the 
teacher maybe. 15. The dull routine, the mechanical methods, and 
the repulsive monotony, which banish everything like an enthusiasm 
for study, ambition of attainment, and a disposition for emulous, noble, 
resolute, vigorous exertion. 

"A judicious system of public schools," says Bishop Potter, " is 
an essential agent of civilization, and especially of that modern re- 
publican civilization, which aims at the greatest good of the greatest 
number; and it is almost the only means by which its rich and 
varied blessings can be preserved and perpetuated ; because it is only 
under the guidance of knowledge that man's intellectual ;ind moral 
powers can be duly developed and wisely applied, and himself pre- 
pared to enjoy this improved civilization." 

To withhold, then, from the children of this republic that intellec- 
tual and moral training which would give them the full command of 
every faculty, both of body and mind, which would call into play 
their powers of observation and reflection, and give them objects of 
pursuit and habits of conduct favorable to their own happiness, would 
be to deny them access to a large proportion of the best and noblest 
influences supplied by Christianity — by Science and the Arts. 

Every child in the land has, therefore, the most undoubted right 
to demand at the hands of government the establishment and main- 
tanance of such a system of public schools as would give him a 
2 



[ 18 ] 

place where his mental and bodily powers, his manners and morals 
can be trained up to a healthful, vigorous and graceful activity, and 
the proper foundation be laid to make him a thinking, reasonable 
being, an enlightened virtuous citizen. It is the duty, therefore, as 
well as the noblest privilige of the Legislature, to establish a system of 
public schools on such a broad and liberal foundation, that the same 
advantages, without being abridged or denied to the children of the 
rich, shall be open at the same tune, to the worthy children of the 
poorest and humblest parent. 

Select, or private schools, on account of their expense, are accessible 
only to the children of the more wealthy ; and they must, on that 
account, always cause inviduous distinctions between the rich and 
the poor, which ought not to exist anywhere, and especially in our 
own country ; because, destined as all are to meet on the broad field 
of competition, and, at the same time, to labor together for the com- 
mon weal, it is unwise to separate them in early life, and to make 
our schools, which ought to be so many bonds of union, the occasions 
of jealousy and inequality of privileges. 

The peculiar advantages of Union and Central High Schools over 
the "old district system,''' as well as over a large majority of select, or 
private high schools, are the following : 

1. By embracing a larger extent of territory, the pecuniary strength 
of each school district is increased, thereby enabling the inhabitants 
to procure a larger and more eligible site, to erect thereon a school 
edifice more ample in dimensions, more attractive in external ap- 
pearance, more convenient and pleasing in its internal finish and 
arrangements, and surroimded with play-grounds more tastefully laid 
out and more appropriately adorned with shade trees. Every expe- 
rienced school visitor and teacher can attest how much these things 
contribute to the physical, intellectual and moral development of 
the pupils, as well as to the formation of habits of taste, neatness, order, 
and other valuable traits which constitute a good character in the 
largest and best sense of the term. 

2. The new system reduces, especially in the country, the number of 
school districts and the number of teachers in demand, thereby ena- 
blino- the people to enhance their compensation and to procure better 
ones, without materially adding to their own burdens ; thus the facility 
for obtaining experienced teachers is increased in a two-fold ratio. 
It brino-s under the direction and skilful supervision of a competent 
Principal, the subordinate and inexperienced teachers, and thus pre- 



[19 1 

vents many of the errors and blunders always incident to schools 
which employ but a single teacher who is too often destitute of a 
knowledge of the proper methods of imparting instruction, even in the 
very rudiments of an education. It is surely a very great desideratum 
for every school to be able to employ as its principal teacher, an indi- 
vidual of fair scientific attainments, of large experience, and possessing 
such enlightened views of the delicacy and responsibility of his voca- 
tion, as will enable him to introduce at once into his school, a proper 
system of discipline, to classify his pupils in a judicious manner, to 
supervise with discretion and judgment the subordinate teachers, and 
so to direct all the school exercises and studies in the lower depart- 
ments as to prevent the necessity of his having to do the work over 
again when the pupils shall have reached his own department. 

3. Union and Central High Schools afford increased facilities for 
the introduction of a judicious course of study, and secure a stricter 
adherence to it than could be done under the old system. They in- 
crease the chances for a selection of good text books, and prevent, 
m a great measure, the frequent changes which used to be such 
a great hindrance to the progress of the school, 'and such a burden 
and annoyance to parents. They have also added greatly to the fa- 
cilities of procuring district libraries and philosophical aparatus,and 
in this way created a more general taste for reading, and secured more 
thorough and practical instruction. 

4. As they are susceptible of a division into departments or grades 
they admit of a more economical classification of the pupils, and thus 
allow the teachers more time for oral and collateral instruction, and 
for pointing out the practical bearing and uses of the subjects taught. 

5. They prevent, in a great degree, the unhappy consequences resul- 
ting from the numerous errors which young and inexperienced teachers 
are so liable to commit; for instead of depending upon a sort of guess- 
ing process in devising their plans, arranging and conducting their ex- 
ercises, as is too often the case when they operate alone without any 
one to guide their efforts, they would, "in a Union school," be fur- 
nished with a programme of exercises by the principal teacher, and be 
daily enlightened by him as to the proper manner of conducting them; 
and thus would all the pupils receive accurate and thorough instruc- 
tion at the very outset of their course. 

6. They afford facilities for carrying out in school keeping, or rather 
for exemplifying the truth of that important maxim, to which a cele- 
brated general of antiquity referred, when he said that an army of 



[ 20] 

sheep with a lion for a leader, was preferable to an army of lions with 
a sheep for a leader; for one competent teacher with several inexpe- 
rienced ones imder him, will accomplish vastly more than an equal 
number of moderately qualified teachers, operating in separate schools, 
without any enlightened supervision. 

7. They tend to prevent the manifold evils resulting from short ses- 
sions, and from a frequent change of teachers ; for though changes 
should take place in the subordinate departments, yet the district being 
able to pay the prmcipal such a salary as would secure his services 
permanently, he would of course remain, and prevent any change in 
the general plan and operations of the school. This is a considera- 
tion that should not be overlooked by parents and school committees ; 
for it saves to the pupil much valuable time, and to the parent much 
expense. 

It is hardly possible to overrate the evils consequent upon a frequent 
change of teachers, for scarcely any uvu persons have the same 
methods, and the one who follows has no opportunity to become 
acquainted, by actual observation, with the condition of the school, 
or the methods- of his jjredecessor. The one has departed, before the 
other arrives. He enters the school a stranger to the children and the 
parents, unacquainted with the relative propensity and aptitude, the 
disposition and habits of the different scholars, ignorant of the course 
pursued by former teachers, and with the prospect, probably, of retir- 
ing himself at the end of three or four months. The progress of the 
school must, therefore, be delayed, while he is learning his position; 
the work which was begun by his predecessor will be arrested, in 
many cases, perhaps, be performed over again, and thus the children 
will often spend the whole period of his term, in retracing their steps 
in a new book, or according to a new plan. Under such a state of 
things, there will be movement, but little real progress. Scarcely less 
will be the injurious consequences resulting from frequent interruption 
in the session of the school, and from long vacations, which render 
it necessary to dwell much longer on the different subjects of study. 

8. They prevent the necessity of private schools, and bring into the 
same school, the children of all ranks and classes of people, where 
they can be educated together, and be prepared in some good degree, 
to act together as citizens. They afford parents the opportunity also, 
of educating their children near home, where their morals and health 
may be constantly under parental supervision and watchful solicitude. 

9. " Union Schools," admitting of a thorough classification of 



[ 21 1 

the scholars, and of a subdivision into departments, occupying sepa- 
rate rooms, many useful exercises can be introduced into the depart- 
ment composed of none but small children, admirably adapted to in- 
terest and improve them, which, in a school composed in part of large 
scholars, would be quite out of place. They obviate many faults, re- 
medy many defects of the old system ; in which the prominent ones 
were, that the pupil was advanced too soon, took up many branches 
before he was prepared for them, and pursued too great a number a 
the same time. The result was, his mind was distracted, no one of 
his studies was thoroughly mastered ; one text-book having been dis- 
patched, another, perhaps on the same subject, was introduced, and 
the pupil was in effect, occupied during most of his school life, in re- 
tracing ground over which he had already traveled, — doing it however, 
in such a manner, that his interest was deadened, his powers of dis- 
crimination impaired, and his mind fixed, and almost petrified in 
habits of torpid and vacant listlessness. 

10. They render it practicable to employ a greater number of fe- 
male teachers, especially in the winter season, and to assign to them a 
more appropriate sphere of operation, and thus secure to young child- 
ren, when they most need it, the genial influence of female care and 
culture. Females make better teachers for young children than the 
other sex, for they have more talent for conversational teaching, more 
quickness of perception in seizing difficulties by which the mind of a 
child is embarrassed, and more mildness of manner in removing them. 
They are ingenious in introducing little d.evices calculated to animate 
and encourage children, and to relieve the monotony of school exer- 
cises. They attach more importance to the improvement of morals, 
are more attentive to cleanliness and good manners than men ; they 
have a peculiar faculty for awakening the sympathies of children, and 
inspiring them with a desire to excel. Possessing warmer affections, 
higher purity, more delicate taste, greater confidence in human nature, 
more untiring zeal in behalf of the objects they love, they will find 
out where a child's mind is quickest, they will follow it in its move- 
ments more readily, and if it has gone astray, they will lead it back 
into the right path more gently and kindly than men. Surely woman 
is the natural guardian, the intended guide, forechosen by Providence, 
for children of a tender ao-e. 



SECTION. III. 

OPINIONS OF STATE SUPEEINTENDANTS, SCHOOL VISITORS, AND OTHERS, 
ON THE UTILITY OF CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOLS. 

In this article it is proposed to speak more particularly of some of 
the benefits of a judiciously organized Central High School ; and this 
will be done by extracts from the annual Reports of a large number of 
the Public Schools of other cities, and from the written and published 
opinions of those who are eminently qalified to pass a correct judg- 
ment on the subject. Before proceeding to give these, it may not be 
inappropriate to state how the expenses of schools of this grade are 
defrayed ; for nearly all of them are free schools. Most of them are 
sustained by a tax on the property of the city or town in which they 
are located. Some of them, however, are the recipients of the annual 
proceeds accruing from " Trust Funds," donated by individuals for 
the support of schools in particlar localities long before Central High 
Schools were thought of. A single case deserves to be mentioned. 
In the year 1664, the " Worshipful Mr. Edward Hopkins of Connec- 
ticut, under his will bequeathed five hundred pounds for the establish- 
mentof a Grammar School" in the town of Hartford. The Hartford 
Central High School established in 1845 is now the recipient, in part, 
of the proceeds of that " Trust." Though originally given for main- 
taining a '• Grammar School," yet it was not considered by those who 
had the charge of it, a perversion or misuser of it, to bestow the avails 
as just stated. The educational archives not only of Hartford, but 
of several towns and cities in New England, furnish many interesting 
facts connected with the mode of applying the annual income from 
funds bequeathed for the founding of schools for the education of or- 
phan children, and of those whose parents were in destitute or mode- 
rate circumstances. There is, however, one remarkable fact connoted 
with all the Central High Schools receiving aid from such " Trusts," 
and that is, not one of these passed from under the control and super- 
vision of the Common School Board in order to become such recipients. 
As the Common School System of this country has changed, the mode of 



[ 23 ] 

applying the proceeds of such " Trusts " has also changed. Those to 
whom their management and distribution were confided, never doubted 
that they could exercise a sound discretion in the matter. The main 
consideration with them has been, how would the donor, if alive, pro- 
bably apply them under present circumstances 1 

But it is time to consider some of the more important advantages 
resulting from a Central High School to the Common School System, 
to the community, and to the pupils who attend it. On this subject 
Mr. Henry Barnard, State Superintendant of Public Instruction of 
Connecticut, and formerly of Rhode Island also, has published an 
elaborate article. The following extracts are taken from it : 

" Every thing which is now done in the several district schools is 
better done, because the teachers are relieved from the necessity of 
devoting the time and attention required by a few of the older and 
more advanced ptipils, and can bestow all their time and attention 
upon the preparatory studies and the younger children. All this is 
done under the additional stimulusof being early and thoroughly fitted 
for the Central High School. Ii equalizes the opportunities of a good 
education, and exerts a happy social influence through all the districts 
of the city. Without such a school, the children of families in hum- 
ble circumstances are doomed to rely exclusively on the district 
school, are isolated and condemned to an inferior education, both in 
quality and quantity. They are cut off from the stimulus and sym- 
pathy which the mingling of children of the same age from different 
parts of the city would impart. 

The privileges of a good school are not only brought within the 
reach of each district, but of all classes ot community, and 
are actually enjoyed by the children of the same age, from families 
of the most diverse circumstances as to wealth, education and occu- 
pation. Side by side in the same recitations, heart and hand in the 
same sports, pressing up together to the same high attainments in know- 
ledge and character, are found the children of the rich and the poor — 
the more and the less favored in outward circumstances, without know- 
ing or caring for the arbitrary distinctions which classify and district 
society. With nearly the same opportuniues of education in child- 
hood and youth, the prizes of life, its fields of usefulness, and sources 
of happiness, are open to all, whatever may have been their accidents 
of birth or fortune. From many obscure and humble homes, are 
called forth and trained, virtue, talent, productive skill, intellectual 
taste, and noble benevolence, which enrich our cities, multiply our 



[ 24] 

work-shops, and carry forward every good work which aims to bless- 
purify and elevate society. 

The influence which the annual examination of candidates for ad- 
mission into the central high school exerts, operates as a powerful 
and abiding stimulus to exertion throughout all the schools. 

Its privileges are held forth as the reward of exertion in the common 
schools proper; and promotion to it based on the result of an impar- 
tial examination, forms an unobjectionable standard by which the 
relative standing of the different schools can be ascertained, and 
also indicates the studies and departments of education, to which the 
teacher in particular schools should devote special attention. 

This influence upon the common schools, upon scholars and teach- 
ers, upon those who reach, and those who do not reach the high 
school, is worth far more than all it costs, independent of the 'advanta- 
ges received by its actual pupils. 

While the expenses for public or common schools are necessarily, 
increased by the establishment of a central high school in addition to 
those now supported, the aggregate expenditures for education in the 
city, including public and private schools, are greatly diminished. 
Many private schools of the same relative standing are discontinued 
for want of patronage, while those of a higher grade which are really 
called for by the educational wants of the community, are greatly im- 
proved. Healthy competition has sprung- up, and the schools which 
did not come up to the highest mark, have gone down in public esti- 
mation. Other things being equal, viz : school houses, teachers, clas- 
sification, and the means and appliances of instruction, the public 
school is always better than the private. It may be safely stated that 
the annual saving in the expenses of education to the city of Hartford, 
in consequence of the new system, is about five thousand dollars. 

The establishment of the high school, by improving the whole sys- 
tem of common schools, and interesting a larger number of families 
in the prosperity of the schools, has created a better public sentiment 
than heretofore existed. The schools are now regarded as the com- 
mon property, the common glory, and the common security of the 
whole city. 

The wealthy feel that the small additional tax required to establish 
and sustain such a school, if not saved to them in diminished tuition 
for the education of their own children in private schools at home and 
abroad, is returned a hundred fold in the cnterprize which it quickens, 
in the increased value given to property, and in the number of fami- 



[ 25 ] 

lies which have resorted to their city or town, as a desirable place of 
residence, because of the facilities enjoyed for a good education. 

The poor feel that whatever betide them, their children are born 
to an inheritance more valuable than lands or shops, in the free 
access to institutions where as good an education can be had as money 
can buy at home or abroad. 

Such results have been realized in more than fifty cities and towns 
in New England, and it is not known that in a single instance a 
school ofthis grade has been abaiidonel after a fair trial. 

Before producing other extracts corroborative of the opinion of Mr. 
Barnard, it may be proper to state that one important incidental ad- 
vantage growing out of the establishment of central high schools, as 
the highest in grade in the common school system, is, that they 
constitute a sort of standard by which the school systems in ditTcrent 
cities can be compared. This circumstance and the fact that they 
are rendered very conspicuous by the rank which they occupy in the 
systein, have compelled, as it were, those standing at their head 
to spare no pains or expense in their efforts to introduce into 
them all the improvements in the way of organization, instruction and 
dii^cipline known in any part of the country. They have there- 
fore become the general distributing agents of important improve- 
ments on the subject of teaching. 

A gentleinan from Brattleboro. Vermont, writes thus : " The high 
school is now based upon a foundation not to be shaken, for it has 
taken deep root in the affections of the community, and is sustained 
and cherished by the most ardent exertions and wishes for its prosper- 
ity and perpetuity. 

" In the same school-room, seated side by side, according to age 
and attainments, are eighty children, representing all classes and con- 
dit ons in society. The lad or miss, whose father pays a tax o' thirty- 
five dollars, by the side of another whose expense of instruction is five 
cents per annum. They play cordially and happily on the same 
grounds, and pursuse the same studies — the former frequently incited 
by the native superiority and practical good sense of the latter. While 
the contact corrects the factitious gentility and ialse ideas of sujieri- 
ority in the one, it encourages cleanliness and good breeding in the 
other. There are exceptions, of course, but such is the general etFect, 
according to my observation and general remark. Envy, jealousy, 
and contempt have given place to kindness, confidence and respect. 
Such, sir, was not the case, when we had four select schools in this 



[26 ] 

village, not one of which now remains. The central school belongs 
to each parent in the village — a patrimony which they leave to their 
children — an inheritance indefeasable except by their indifference ; 
and that it may not depreciate in value, they are constant in their vis- 
its and attention. Its influence has collected a well selected and 
much read library of nine hunered volumes, and created a taste for 
reading among all classes. It has secured a corps of competent and 
permanent teachers in the primary schools, and insured uniformity 
in books and the course of study, Teachers from other towns visit 
the Central School, to witness the modes of instruction, and School 
Committees to obtain the improvements in construction of houses, 
seats, laying out grounds, &c. The effect upon the whole community 
has been favorably felt in directing attentijn to the subject of educa- 
tion." 

The principal of the Boston High School, thus speaks of the state 
of his School in relation to the occupations, position, and wealth 
of the parents of its pupils : 

"Those of us who were brought up in the Public Schools, never 
asked whose sons our companions were ; but whether they were clever 
and good. Mr. Otis' son, or Mr. Winthrop's or Mr. Perkins' went 
for no more than the son of the carpenter who repaired the school 
house, or the son of the man employed to sweep the building, unless 
he were in truth a better scholar, or a more obliging companion. In 
reality, all met on a common level, so far as outward circumstances 
came into consideration. 

There is no instiiudon so truly republican'as such a school as this. 
While we, the present teachers, were under graduates of the School, 
rich men sent their sons to the School, because it was the best that 
could be found. They learned that it was not a source of contamina- 
tion, but that their sons learned how to compare themselves with others, 
and to feel the necessity of something more than mere wealth to gain 
consideration. At the same time poor men sent their sons here be- 
cause they knew that they would get that education which they could 
not afford to give them in any other way. They gained too by inter- 
course with their wealthier mates, a polish of exterior manners and 
an intellectual turn of mind, which their friends could appreciate and 
perceive, although they could not tell what it was that had been ac- 
quired. Oftentimes also the poor boy would take the lead of his pam- 
pered class-mate, and take the honors of the school in preference to 
him. To us, therefore, thus prepared by our own education to refute 



[ 27 J 

the assertions that the ricl. will not use the Public Schools of a high 
order, and that the poor cannot practically have access to them, it 
seems strange that there should be any question about the matter. 
In a class lately belonging to the School, there were two boys, one the 
son of a man of extreme wealth, whose property cannot be less than 
$500,000, and the other the son of an Irish laborer, employed by the 
city at a do.lar a day to sweep the streets. The latter boy was the 
better scholar. The list of one of my classes lies before me. In that 
class there are three boys whose parents are very wealthy ; three whose 
parents are poor, but not laborers, and ten whose parents are in mod- 
erate circumstances. All these are looking forward to a collegiate 
training. Of the the three who are brought up in great affluence, 
neither is among the best scholars. One might be so, if he would take 
the pains, but he will not. Of the three denominated poor, two are 
very good scholars, and one not good. The best scholars are among 
those whose parents are in moderate circumstances. 

I have heard it said by men of wealth within a few years, that they 
could not afford to send their sons to other Schools to be fitted for col- 
lege, because they could not buy letter fitting for them than they could 
get here." 

The Principal of the English High School remarks : 

"At present about one-third of my pupils are sons of merchants ; 
the remaining two-thirds are sons of mechanics, professional men and 
others. Some of our best scholars are sons of coopers, lamplighters, 
and day laborers. A few years ago, he who ranked as our third scho- 
lar was the son of a lamplighter, and worked three nights in the week 
during his whole course, to save his father the expense of books, &c., 
while at school. This year my second, if not my first scholar, is a 
cooper's son. We have several sons of clergymen of distinction, and 
lawyers of eminence. Indeed, the School is a perfect example of the 
poor and the rich, meeting on common ground and on terms quite de- 
mocraiic." 

A member of the School Committee of Nantucket, speaks of 
the operation of the Public High Schools in that town in the follow- 
ing language : 

" Our Public High School has been in operation about ten years, 
and has during the whole of this lime, been highly useful in many 
ways. It has been a stimulus to exertion, to the scholars of the lowet 
Schools, and has furnished us with well educated teachers in our gram 
mar schools. 



[28 ] 

"Before the establisliment of our High School, we had several pri. 
vatc schools, where the children of the wealthy received an education 
beyond the reach of the poorer classes, who, although they had the 
interest and desire, had not the means to obtain it. When the school 
was first established, many kept their children away ; but we were 
foriunate enough to obtain a teacher — now the Principal of the State 
Normal School, at West Newton — whose success was such that soon 
the Public Schools took the lead, and private institutions almost wholly 
ceased. All cheerfully sent their children to the High School as soon 
as they were qualified for admission, and very many who had patron- 
ized private schools, when they found their children failed in the ex- 
amination for admission into this school, from superfical teaching, 
sent them into the Public Grammar School, where no favor was shown 
and no glossing over was tolerated; and there they fought their way 
up side by side, with their poorer school-mates, learning many 
good lessons besides those in the exact sciences. The whole amount 
of money expended for schools has been much diminished by the sub- 
stitution of public for private sc :ools, and the teaching has been much 
more thorough in the former than it was in the latter, as the tempta- 
tion is not so strong with the teacher of the public schools to force 
children forward in order to please parents and fill his school. The 
general interest in schools is much increased, and the admittance to 
the High School is valued by all, the rich as well as the poor." 

But it may be said that the cost of buildings, and the annual tax for 
supporting such schools, must be paid mainly by a few wealthy indi- 
viduals, who receive in return no direct benefit from the schools. To 
this it may be replied, without dwelling upon the increased security of 
property and person in a well educated community, that the tendency 
of establishing good schools in any place, will be to increase the activity 
and enterprise of its citizens, and to lead others, not only laborers, but 
persons of fortune who have families to educate, to make it their resi- 
dence : the legitimate result of this will be to increase the value of real 
estate, to raise the price of rents, and thus to remunerate the tax payer. 
In proof of this we quote the following : The President of the North 
Weste.n Educational Society, Wm. B. Ogden, Esq., stated some 
months since, that "he was entrusted with the sale of numerous lots in 
the city of Chicago, belonging to non-residents, and that he sold hun- 
dreds more, and fifty per cent, higher than he could have sold but for 
the free public schools of the city." In a debate on this subject in the 
Legislature of Rhode Island, the Hon. Mr. Potter remarked : " I am 



[29 ] 

in favor of establishing schools. I know how beneficial free school.-? 
have been to this town (Providence). The houses here rent for fifty 
pcr cent, more than they would if there were no public schools. A 
mechanic can afford to pay it because he more than saves it in educa- 
ting his children. It is owing to this that the town of Providence has 
been getting away the population from the rest of the State." 

In conclusion, it may be remarked that all the arguments here offered 
in favor of the establishment of Union Schools, apply with equal force 
in favor of classified Public Schools in cities too large to be accommo- 
dated by a single school ; and that the benefits of a Free High School 
are greater and more apparant, in places sufficiently large to warrant 
the erection of a separate building for this department. 

The Principal of the Central High School, at Hallowell, Maine, 
thus writes : — "In it are taught all the higher English, and also the 
Classical studies are pursued systematically far enough to qualify 
youth for practical business or for College. The influence of this 
school is decidedly manifest in elevating public sentiment in refer- 
ence to the advantages of Common Schools, and the value of general 
education. It presents also a powerful stimulus to the children in 
the lower schools, to greater diligence and effort to qualify them- 
selves to gain admission ; so that even our grammar schools now, 
are far better than our best schools, public or private, before this 
system was introduced. The effect is also visible in removing the 
necessity of Private Schools, the children of all classes vieing with 
each other on a common level for elevation, and the only ground of 
distinction being good scholarship and correct deportment. Nor can 
the benevolent mind contemplate without high satisfaction, its results, 
in imparting a gratuitous education of an elevated character to hun- 
dreds of children, whose pecuniary means are totally inadequate to 
secure it in Private Schools. 



SECTION IV. 

FINANCIAL BEARING OF THE MODERN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. 

The design of this article is to iUustrate the financial advantage of 
substituting public for private schools to the greatest possible extent, 
and the influence which Central Schools have exerted in this regard ; 
and as historical facts are more interesting, as well as more conclu- 
sive on this subject, than mere speculation or abstract reasoning, a 
large number of them will be given. 

The following communication, from a gentleman of Providence, 
R. I., shows the operation of the High School in that city : 

" The High School was the only feature of our system which en- 
countered much opposition. When first proposed, its bearings on 
the schools below, and in various ways on the cause of education in 
the city, was not clearly seen. It was opposed because it was "aris- 
tocratic," "because it Avas unconstitutional to tax property for a city 
High School," "because it would educate children above working 
for their support," and for all svich contradictory reasons. Before it 
became a part of the system, the question of its adoption, or rejection, 
was submitted to the people, who passed in its favor by a vote of 
two-thirds of all the legal voters in the city. Even after this ex- 
pression of popular vote in its favor, and after the building for its 
accommodation was erected, there was a considerable minority who 
circulated a petition to the City Council against its going into opera- 
tion. But the school was opened, and now it would be as easy to 
strike out the whole, or any other feature in the system, as this. 
Its influence in giving stimulus and steadiness to the workings of 
the lower grade of schools — in giving thoroughness and expansion to 
the whole course of instruction — in assisting to train teachers for our 
city and country schools, — and in bringing together the older and 
more advanced pupils, of either sex, from families of every profes- 
sion, occupation and location in the city, many of whom, but for the 
opportunities of this school, would enter on the duties and business 
of life with an imperfect education. The success of the school has 



[ 31 ] 

demonstrated its own usefulness as a part of the system, and has 
converted its opponents into friends. The regular number of pupils 
is 120 boys, and 120 girls. 

" There were in the city of Providence, in 1847, thirty-nine Public 
Schools, containing 5,319 pupils. These schools are distributed into 
four grades, as follows : — 20 Primary Schools, 10 Intermediate 
Schools, 7 Grammar Schools, 1 High School, with a male and female 
department. The course of instruction extends from the simplest 
rudiments to a preparation for any of the various industrial pursuits, 
or for College. The schools are open to the children of all classes, 
from every part of the city, without partiality, and free of any charge 
for rate-bills or tuition, being supported throughout by a property tax, 
which is paid as cheerfully as a tax for any other purpose. The an- 
nual expense of the system for the instruction of 5,319 pupils, for 
1846, was f 4,67 per scholar. Before our system was reorganized, it 
was ascertained, by a Committee of the Mechanics' Association, that 
more than $20,000 was expended for the tuition of children in pri- 
vate schools, which the same Committee pronounced "the heaviest 
burden put upon the middling classes." Under the operation of our 
improved system, nearly all the private schools, [all except a very 
few of the very highest grade, ) have been discontinued ; and although 
these improvements in the public schools have been attended with a 
necessary increase of the aggregate expense, (making the expense 
per scholar less,) still a saving of at least $10,000 in the aggregate 
expenditure for education in the city has been annually affected." 

The operation of a Central School, as a part of the Common School 
system, of the city of Worcester, Mass., where a Free Common 
School for the more advanced scholars of either sex, of the whole 
town and city, has been for years supported by a town tax, will be 
seen from the following extract : 

"The town of Worcester is divided into thirteen districts, — the 
city constituting district No. 1, in which there are four grades of 
schools. The High School of the city district is, however, blended 
with the " Town School," which thus becomes the English and 
Classical High School, designed for the youth, not only of district 
No. 1, but of that and the twelve country districts, so far as they are 
found qualified, on examination, to enter it. When there are more 
applicants found qualified, than there are vacancies, it is a rule of 
the Board to give a preference to those who are presented from the 
country districts, over those from the city. As might be expected, 



[ 32 ] 

there are children from every part of the town, and from families re- 
presenting every occupation and profession, and every degree of 
wealth and poverty." A member of the School Committee, writing 
on this latter point, says : — "I suppose the people of this city are 
thought to be as aristocratic as in other cities of its size and wealth. 
Be that as it may, our High School is exceedingly popular with all 
classes, and in the school rooms and on the play grounds, the child- 
ren of the richest and poorest mingle with perfect equality. No as- 
sumption, — no jealousy are seen among them. I have been charmed 
with this republican and christian character of the school. I have 
seen the children of parents whose wealth was estimated by himdreds 
of thousands, in the same school room with children, (and the last 
among the best scholars of their classes, ) whose parents have been 
assisted, year after year, by individual charity. The manners, habits, 
and moral sentiments of this school are as pure and high as in any 
academy or female seminary of the same grade in the commonwealth. 
" Come and visit our school, — and you will find the desks without 
a mark or an ink-spot, — the floor without a stain, — the walls, inside 
and out, and everything appertaining to the building, without a de- 
facing line or blemish. There has been no home of comfort, or re- 
finement, in the city or town of Worcester, kept more free from this 
abuse, than has been the High School building. This proves that a 
public school can be pervaded by high, refining, elevating moral 
influences. This school seems to be like a large christian family, 
and I would beg any of your people who have doubts about the 
practicability of such a school, to come and look at it, and I am sure 
their doubts and opposition will vanish. Our school Avas at first 
opposed by a considerable minority, but the success of the school in 
the new building, and under the new organization, has charmed away 
all hostile feeling, and more than realized the expectations and 
jiromises of those of us who labored for its accomplishment. To 
the improvements of our public schools, which have been going 
steadily forward since 1825, does this city owe more of its prosperity, 
— its large accession of families from abroad, especially of industri- 
ous and skillful mechanics, than to all other causes combined. As a 
mere investment of capital, men of wealth everywhere cannot do 
better with a portion of their property than to build elegant and at- 
tractive school houses, and open in them free schools for the highest 
order of instniction. They will then see gathering around them men 
it may be, of small means, but of practical skill, and moral and in- 
dustrious habits, — that class of families who feel that one of the great 
ends of life is to educate their children well. 



[ 33 J 

"In this city the largest tax payers, instead of contending against 
the constitutionality of paying tax for a High School, not only pay 
their taxes cheez-fully, but that one of them, W. J. Salisbury, Esq., 
not only paid a large tax towards the annual expenses of the public 
schools, including the High School, but, in connection with another 
individual, has presented the same High School with a philosophical 
apparatus which cost -f 1300. The Governors, and Ex- Governors, of 
the same town, as well as physicians and other educated men, are 
found not only among the advocates of liberal grants in support of 
public schools, but such men as Governor Lincoln, and Governor 
Davis, never sent their children to any other schools. A son of Gov. 
Davis was, a few years since, an assistant teacher in the High 
School." 

Dr. Woodward remarks, "giving this school, — the High School, — 
so high a character, has cheapened the means of education so much, 
that I have kept tAvo and three sons in it, by paying an annual tax 
of less than ten dollars." 

The liberality of men of wealth, and even of men not wealthy, 
towards public schools, is not confined to Worcester, or Hartford, or 
Providence. 

Hon. Stephen C Phillips, of Salem, late member of Congress, ap- 
propriated his entire salary, as Mayor of the city of Salem, for three 
years, (S2,300,) towards the fitting up of the. Latin and Englisli 
High School. John Chase, Esq., the eminent machinist of Cabot- 
ville, made a donation of $1,000 towards the High School building 
of that village. Edward Harris, Esq., of Woonsocket, R. I., gave 
one acre of land, valued at $1,000, for a Central High School at that 
place. 

The following extract from the Annual Report of the School Com- 
mittee, of Salem, Mass., drawn up by the Hon. S. S. Phillips, shows 
the financial bearings of good public schools. In the Salem system, 
there is^n English and Latin High School for boys, and another for 
girls: "In the year 1836-7, previous to the estabhshment of the 
High Schools, there were ascertained to be in the city seventy private 
schools, containing 1590 scholars, educated at an annual expense for 
tuition, of $22,700 — averaging $14,27 per scholar, while in the year 
1844, and after the establishment of the High Schools, it was ascer- 
tained that there were but 35 private schools, containing 775 scholars, 
supported at an expense for tuition, of $10,098 — averaging $13 per 
scholar. It thus appears that 2826 children were educated in the 
3 



[ 34 ] 

city in 1836-7, (both in public and private schools,) at the cost of 
^31,355-87— averaging $11,09 per scholar— and that 3263 children 
were in like manner educated during the year 1844, at the cost of 
$24,434-21 — averaging $7,48 per scholar. Had private schools con- 
tinued to receive as large a portion of the children as formerly, and 
had the average rate of instruction in both classes of schools remained 
the same that it was in 1837, the whole cost of the education of all 
the children in the city must have been, during the year 1844, al- 
most $12,000 more than it actually proved to be. In 1850, about 
4,000 scholars were educated during the year in the public schools, 
at the cost of $18,613-75— averaging $4,65 per scholar. This is the 
true economical result of the changes that have been introduced into 
the public schools ; and, the more closely it is analyzed, the more 
strikingly it will illustrate the financial advantage of substituting 
public for private schools to the greatest practicable extent." 

John H. Shaw, Esq., Chairman of the School Committee, Nan- 
tucket, Mass., thus Avrites: — "None now question the utility of the 
High School, which is very great not only in furnishing a great num- 
ber of our children with a superior education, but also, in stimulating 
the children in the other schools, with the hope of promotion to the 
Hiffh School. At the commencement of this school, some of our 
good people did oppose it ; some, no doubt, Avho did not wish to pay 
the tax ; but they were few, and now not to be found. It is now 
generally conceded, that no money is better expended than that which 
now supports our public schools. Indeed, the duty of the public to 
p-'ive every child a good education, and his right to claim it at the 
public expense, is not with us denied. And if we look no higher 
than the preservation of our institutions, the future safety of life, 
property, and all that makes this life desirable, Avhat can insure it 
better than this general system of public school instruction ?" 

L. Andrews, Esq., Superintendent of Public Schools, Massillon, 
Ohio, thus writes: — "Our free schools seem to be popul* because 
our citizens consider them the best schools they have ever had, and 
because they now educate all the children of the town at a less ex- 
pense than they formerly educated a part. Our heavy tax payers 
o-enerally favor bur schools ; indeed, some of their most active sup- 
porters are large-hearted, wealthy men, who have no children to send 
to scliool." 

A. Wheeler, Esq., Principal of the Central High School, Worces- 
ter, Mass., thus writes: — "There Avas no serious opposition to the 



[35 ] 

establishment of the High School, and even what there was has long 
since subsided. Our wealthiest citizens, and heaviest tax payers 
were, in the main, in favor of it. The improvement of our school 
system is believed to have enhanced very considerably the value of 
taxable property in this city." 

Spencer Smith, Esq., Superintendent of Public Schools, St. Louis, 
Mo., thus writes : — "At the last election concerning the tax for the 
support of our schools, there was very little opposition, and less from 
the rich than the poor." In reference to the importance of a public 
High School, he says — " There can be no doubt that it is essentially 
necessary to a complete system of public instruction." 

S. G. Mead, Esq., Chairman of School Committee, Brattleboro, 
Vermont, thus responds to the interrogatory propounded to him on 
this subject: "There is among our citizens a very strong, and, I 
may say, growing attachment to our school system. The schools 
under the new plan have made their mark upon the character and 
intellects of our youth ; and we have no doubt of their decided effect 
in raising the value of Real Estate in our place. Many families 
have come to reside among us professedly with the view to enjoy the 
benefits of these schools. The High School is under the instruction 
of a thoroughly educated gentleman, and in it are taught all the 
branches usually taught in the best New England Academies. Our 
new system had not been in operation a year before all the private 
schools in the town disappeared, and such has been the success of 
the system that we have never had nor felt the need of any other 
than the public schools among us. The system, at first, met with 
opposition, from a fear that it would be very expensive ; but since 
we got over the expense of fitting up a High School building, and 
putting our other houses in good order, it is found that our schools 
now cost less than the same number of Common Schools of the old 
stamp, taught by males one-half the year, and by females the other 
half; — to say nothing of the private schools that were saddled upon 
us, — from the whole expense of which we have been relieved by the 
new system." 

A gentleman of Dayton, Ohio, thus speaks of the public sentiment 
of that city in regard to their public free schools: "There was, at 
its first organization, a very strong opposition to our new school sys- 
tem, but this opposition has been gradually decreasing, and, indeed, 
I may say, has totally ceased. For this change in public sentiment, 
the following reasons may be assigned, viz: 1st., the decided supe- 



[ 3C ] 

riority of the schools under the present system, and 2nd., the in- 
creased interest manifested by parents in said schools. The High 
School, which was established last spring, has never, it is believed, 
encountered any opposition. So anxious were all classes for its es- 
tablishment, that the Trustees and Stockholders of the Dayton Acade- 
my made a donation of the Academy building to the Board of Mana- 
gers of the public schools, upon the single condition that a High 
School should be kept up, and that it should be accessible to all the 
children of the city possessing the requisite qualifications. The ad- 
vantages accruing from the High School are — 1st, the strict super- 
vision to which the school is subjected by the Board of Managers, 
who require everything to be taught in the most thorough manner : — 
2nd, the separation of dull, indolent and laggard pupils from the 
active and diligent, since none are permitted to enter the High School 
except upon a rigid examination, and none are permitted to retain 
their connection with it only upon the conditions that they are orderly, 
industrious and prompt in the discharge of the duties required : — 3rd, 
through this school an opportunity is afforded to all, who possess the 
requisite ability and industry, of acquiring a thoi-ough English and 
Classical education, and at a far less expense than it could be obtained 
in private schools: — 4th, it gives unity to the whole system, and 
stimulates to greater exertion the pupils in the schools below." 

The School Committee of Lynn, Mass., thus report: "The influ- 
ence exerted by the establishment of the High School has been, 
during the year, very marked and beneficial. It has caused a gen- 
erous emulation, and elevated the standard of education. It has 
produced a greater degree of thoroughness, and a better attendance 
among the first classes in the principal schools. It opens to the 
poorest child an avenue by which he can be admitted to the realm of 
knowledge, not as a charity but as a right. It opens to all, those 
advantages which hitherto money alone, or humiliating dependence 
could obtain. It remains now for a people who know how to avail 
themselves of their rights, to establish in the Commonwealth a free 
College, or free Colleges, where, at the public expense, merit and 
talent shall receive that encouragement, and be instructed in those 
arts and sciences, which belong to them. It is not in harmony with 
our democratic institutions, to have the highest education depend 
upon the length of the individual purse. It is for the advantage of 
all, that those who have the talents should be put where they can 
learn to use the tools. Let our town lead the way, by petitioning 



[ 37 ] 

for the establishment of free Colleges, which shall be maintained at 
the expense of the State. Without the free College, the system of 
public instruction, which is our greatest glory as a people, remains 
without a suitable head. Its form is imperfect, as long as private 
institutions are alone the avenue where the highest and most scien- 
tific education can be obtained." 

Another gentleman, residing in an Eastern city in Avhich they have 
had a Central High School for the last twelve years, writes as fol- 
lows : "In regard to the feelings of our heavy tax payers respecting 
our public schools, and the High School in common, if not in par- 
ticular, I have to state, that one of our citizens who pays an annual 
tax of some Si 300, said to me a few days since, 'I pay my propor- 
tion of the school tax as cheerfully as I pay for my dinner.' The 
Chairman of our School Committee, is one of our heaviest tax pay- 
ers. Our wealthy citizens think it cheaper to support schools than 
jails, and while we have comfortable school rooms well filled, we have 
old, dila2:)idated jails entirely empty." 

The Controllers of the Public Schools of the city of Philadelphia, 
thus speak of the benefits accruing from the Central High School of 
that city : 

" The High School continues to make its influence usefully felt 
upon the other schools of the city, and seems to answer all the rea- 
sonable expectations of its founders. A careful examination of the 
facts connected with the school, establish these important points, viz : 
That the pupils of the High School are educated, and to a considera- 
ble extent, fitted for business life. That their qualifications are the 
legitimate fruits of the public school system. That a taste for litera- 
ture and useful science has been widely disseminated through parts 
of our community not ordinarily possessed of the means of acquiring 
it. And that but for the existence of the High Schools, full three- 
fourths of those who have been its pupils would, most probably, 
never have enjoyed the opportunity of imbibing more than the lowest 
rudiments of knowledge. These are the results which should surely 
commend the Institution to the calm judgment and decided support 
of the great mass of our community, and indeed of every philanthro- 
pist." 



SECTION V. 

COURSE OF STUDY FOR CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOLS. 

In arranging a School System, as well as in establishing a particu- 
lar School in that system, it is the part of wisdom to gather up all the 
light furnished by the experience of the past, to ascertain what plans 
are fulfilling ptiblic expectations, and to anticipate as far as possible, 
not only the wants of the present generation, but also the exigencies 
of those who shall fill our places many years hence. Those whose 
duty it is to build up a noble system of public instruction, should seek 
to give greater scope and impulse to the sublime law of human pro- 
gress. They should not limit their observations to the passing hour, 
but look before and after them, and see what the great interests of 
humanity, in the aggregate, demand. 

In the matter of schools, as in the case of legislation, true pliilan- 
thopy, as well as sound policy, require that we should endeavor to es- 
timate carefully the probable effect of our schemes or legislation, not 
only upon the risen and rising, but also upon future generations. 

In this Section, it is proposed to discuss the question of the pro- 
priety or impropriety of introducing into a Common Central High 
School, a full collegiate course of study in the Ancient classics. 

There are now lying before us reports, letters, and other documents, 
from nearly every Central High School in the United States; and, with 
a single exception, none of them propose to advance their pupils fur- 
ther in the ancient classics than to give them a thorough preparation 
for College. To those who have niven careful attention to the educa- 
tional movements of the day, it must appear evident that the tenden- 
cies are, not to multiply subjects of study, but rather to diminish them ; 
not to impose upon any one school in the system, such an amount of 
work that nothing can be done thoroughly ; but so to grade the schools, 
and adapt the subjects of study, that each may perform his allotted 
work in the best possible manner. Acting under this impression, 
those who organized some of the High Schools already referred to. 



[39 1 

excluded from them the ancient classics. The opinion is now 
pretty generally entertained that to require a Central High School to 
perform the work of an Academy and College too, would over-burthen 
it with a task not coming legitimately within its scope, and compel it, 
to some extent, to do all its work more or less superficially. It is 
quite important to understand what the true American System re- 
quires in this regard, and to what its established practice and uniform 
success have given their sanction. The following are the grades or 
departments into which the "American School System" has been 
very generally divided, viz: 1. The Primary School. 2. The 
Intermediate, or Secondary School. 3. The Grammar School. 
4. The Central, or High School. And it is confidently expected 
by those who are competent to judge, that we shall see, in a few years, 
the College, or University, as the Fifth, or highest Department, in 
the great Republican System of Education. 

Hear what the Trustees of the Newburyport (Mass.) High School 
say on the subject of not imposing upon the School a greater amount 
of work than it can perform consistently with accuracy and thorough- 
ness, 

" One of the pi'ominent objects of the system of instruction adopted, 
will be to teach the pupils to think for themselves. Intellectual dis- 
cipline will always be regarded as a higher and more worthy ob- 
ject of attainment than the mere acquisition of knowledge ; and to 
this end, a few subjects practically and thoroughly wrought into the 
understanding of the pupils, will contribute more than a score of sub- 
jects superficially skimmed over.'' 

From this School the Latin and Greek languages are excluded. 

The able Superintendent of the Public Schools of Connecticut, and 
formerly of Rhode Island also, Mr. H. Barnard, under whose wise 
and skillful guidance, both States are in possession of a school system 
surpassed by that of no State in the Union, used the following lan- 
guage in reference to the design and utility of the Hartford High 
School — a school, by the way, in respect to its edifice, organization, 
discipline and instruction, and in all other respects, worthy of its dis- 
tinguished projector. 

" By a PubUc or Common High School, is intended a Public or 
Common School for the education of the older and more advanced 
children of the society, in studies which can be more profitably pur- 
sued there than in the District Schools — a School as Public or Com- 
mon to all the older and more advanced scholars of each and everv 



[ 40 ] 

district in the society, as the District School is to the children of the 
district to which they belong — subject, as in the case of a district, to 
such general regulations as the management and administration of 
the school may require. It is a Society Common School for the older 
and more advanced scholars. 

" As the proposed plan requires the co-operation of the whole So- 
ciety, the course of instruction should be such, as when added to the 
discipline and attainments secured in ihe District Schools, shall afford 
to all the older and more advanced scholars of either sex, the means 
of acquiring that education which shall fit them to enter with hope 
upon the duties of life — an education, equal in extent and value at 
least to what is now given in any Private School, Academy or Female 
Seminary in the city or country. There is no reason why the sons 
and daughters of every family, in or out of the city, within the limits 
of this Society, should not have access to schools as good and cheap 
as experience has shown can be established in other communities not 
more favorably situated than our own for this purpose. The advanta- 
ges of the proposed school should not be confined to our sons. 

"Our daughters need to have their minds disciplined and their 
knowledge enlarged. We ought to be able to traiij up among our- 
selves both male and female teachers for <ur own schools, and not de- 
pend on other towns and other States for our supply. The great in- 
fluence of the female sex, as daughters, sisters, wives, mothers, com- 
panions and teachers, in determining the manners, morals and intel- 
ligence of the whole community, leaves no room to question the ne- 
cessity of providing for them the best means of intellectual and mo- 
ral culture. At the present time this education cannot be had for 
the boys or girls, except at an expense which in the circumstances 
of many families, in and out of the city, is a virtual denial of its ad- 
vantages to their children, and in many more, is a serious and bur- 
densome sacrifice. Let the course of instruction embrace the first 
principles of natural and mechanical philosophy, by which inventive 
genius and practical skill in the useful arts can be fostered ; — stich 
studies as navigation, book-keeping, surveying, botany, chemistry, 
and kindred studies, which are directly connected with success in the 
varied departments of domestic and inland trade, with foreign com- 
merce, with gardening, agriculture, the manufacturing and domestic 
arts — such studies as astronomy, physiology, the history of our own 
State and Nation, the principles of our State and national constitu- 
tions, political economy and moral science — in fine, such a course. 



[ « ] 

of suidy as is now given in more than fifty towns and cities in New 
England, and which shall prepare every young man, whose parents 
may desire it, for business or for college — and give to every young 
woman, a well disciplined mind, high moral aims, refined tastes, gen- 
de and graceful manners, practical views of her own duties, and those 
resources of health, thought, conversation and occupation, which 
bless alike the highest and lowest station in life ; — so that the same 
advantages, without being abridged or denied to the children of the 
rich and educated, shall be open, at the same time, to the worthy and 
talented children of the poorest parent." 

A score of extracts of similar import might be given, not only from 
the writings of able and experienced individual educators, but also from 
the reports of School Boards, occupying a high place in public esti- 
mation. 

These all tend to establish the fact, that the apjjropriate sphere of a 
High School, is between the Common School and University ; that ii 
should not enfeeble itself by seeking to do the work of a Univergity ; 
nor, in the language of the able Report of the Executive Commiuee 
of the New York City Free Academy, " usurp the province of the 
Common Schools. It should receive no pupils who have not reach- 
ed, in the branches designated as the subjects of examination for ad- 
mission, the highest point that can be attained in the Common 
Schools. It would be doing them injustice and defeat the aim of 
improving the character of the instruction in them, which is one of 
the great advantages anticipated from the establishment of the higher 
seminary. In the second place, unless the scholar has had his un- 
derstanding developed and cultivated in the prosecution of his studies 
in the school below, in a thorough manner, and attained the full mea- 
sure of the staiidard, he is not prepared for the difficitlt subjects that 
are to be pursued in the Free Academy. It should be remembered 
that the Free Academy is accessible only to the pupils of the Public 
and Wards Schools of the city of New York ; and hence the anxiety 
of the Board of Control to have it subserve their advancement, by 
keeping within its proper province." 

" The instruction in the New York Free Academy receives its 
general shaping with reference to the fact that it is the head of the 
Common School System of a great commercial city. The design ol 
the power that gave it existence — the voters of the city — is that it 
shall qualify boys to take an active, intelligent and successful part in 
the great life struggle of commercial enterprise and practical in- 



[42 ] 

dustry. It was certainly never contemplated to form of the students 
of the Free Academy a corps of men of letters, to fill the various 
learned professions, or to pursue, through a life of devotion to science, 
for the love of science itself, a train of investigations hegun within 
its walls. The system of instruction should not, therefore, be 
modeled upon those institutions now known as universities. It should 
be comprehensive, varied and thorough, and, at the same time practi- 
cally useful and available.". This, then, seems to be the sum and 
substance of the general proposition in regard to Free Central or High 
Schools, as a branch of the common school system, viz: to give to 
all the children in the public or common schools, who have the 
desire, industry and ability to acquire it, that education which will 
qualify them to enter with success upon any desired business, avoca- 
tion, profession, employment, or industrial pursuit in life ; in short, to 
give them the same special education with reference to success in the 
great life-struggle of practical industry, that is given at West Point to 
qualify young men to become intelligent, scientific and efficient 
military ofticers and engineers. As the grand developement of educa- 
tion there is mathematical, in strict accordance with the end in view, 
viz : strategy, tactics and military engineering — sciences founded on 
mathematical principles — so in a Central High School, education 
should be shaped, so far as practicable, to the great end in view — a 
special preparation for any of the leading industrial pursuits de- 
manded by the nature of our political institutions and the condition of 
our people. 

It is very generally conceded that education, in our common 
school system, should be so shaped as to accomplish industrial and 
utilitarian ends in the highest degree consistent with the proper de- 
velopement of the mind itself. The present age is one of peculiar 
advantages. It enjoys the concentrated light of nearly sixty cen- 
turies. The arts and sciences have arrived at a high degree of 
perfection; and their applicaiion to the practical purposes of life de- 
mand a withdrawal from the ancient classics a portion of the time 
formerly devoted to them. 

But to proceed with the extract in relation to the Free Academy of 
New York city. 

" It is obvious xhai a thorough maihematical training, not necessarily, 
however, a very extended one. should be among the prominent con- 
stituents of the course of study in the Free Academy. 

" The authority of ancient usage is strongly in favor of the rela- 



[ 43 ] 

tive depreciation of the modern tongues in comparison with the 
ancient classics; but this is not to be wondered at, since the force of 
old prejudice is so powerful ; but the administration of the Free 
Academy ought not to foster this prejudice by creating an inviduous 
distinction between the two branches of study. Now, as mental dis- 
cipline depends much more upon the method of study, and upon a com- 
petent variety of studies, than upon the intrinsic nature of the thing 
studied; and as the desirableness of a study in the Free Academy 
is therefore righdy tested by its positive after value in practical, every- 
day life, it would undoubtedly be better not to assign to the ancient 
classics a higher rank than the German, French and Spanish lan- 
guages. We are not disposed to deny the positive value of a know- 
ledge of the elements of Latin, or even of Greek. 

But the whole matter should be made a subordinate study. In all 
soberness, a serious determination to devote a good part of each day 
to the study of the ancient classics during four years in such an insti- 
tution — the head of the Common School Popular Education in a busy, 
commercial city — smells rather too much of the cloister. We are 
well aware that an exact and thorough acquaintance with the living 
and continenial languages of Europe — French, Spanish, and espe- 
cially German, constitutes a capital stock of positive knowledge of no 
mean value in the possession of any one, and that the demand for 
them is rapidly increasing. Nations wtU be jostled together during 
the next generation as promiscuously as neighborhoods now are. The 
manners and modes of thought of one nation can never be appreci- 
ated by another until its language is understood. There are, probably, 
not ten grown men or women in the city who are endeavoring to re- 
pair the defects of their early education — to mend the blunders of 
their parents and guardians, by commencing the study of Latin and 
Greek, while thousands, probably lens of thousands, are making c?«^7y 
rxndi painful efforts to do so by learning German, French and Spanish. 
This fact, alone, is conclusive as to the relative practical value of 
the ancient and modern languages. But to be thorough, a school 
must not undertake to go over too much ground, nor embrace subjects 
of study out of its proper sphere." 

Hear Hon. Horace Mann on this subject, to whom the modern 
educational movemr/nt is more indebted than to any other individual 
in the United States. " Thoroughness, therefore, — thoroughness, and 
again I say, thoroughness, for the sake of the knowledge, and still 
more for the sake of the habit, should, at all events, be enforced; 



[ 44 ] 

and a pupil should never be suffered to leave any subject, until he 
can reach his arins quite around ii, and clench his hands on the op- 
posite side. Those persons, who know a little of everything, but 
nothing well, have been aptly compared to a certain sort of pocket- 
knife, which some over-curious people carry about with them, which, 
in addition to a common knife, contains a file, a chisel, a saw, a 
gimblet, a screw-driver, and a pair of scissors, but all so diminutive, 
thai the moment they are needed for use, they are found to be qtiite 
useless. It seems to me that one of the greatest errors in education, 
at the present time, is the desire and ambition, at single lessons, to 
teach complex truths, whole systems, doctrines, theorems, which 
years of analysis are scarcely sufficient to unfold; instead of com- 
mencing with simple elements, and then rising, by gradations, to 
combined results, all is administered in a mass. We strive to intro- 
duce knowledge into the child's mind, the great end first. When 
lessons are given in this way, the pupil, being unable to comprehend 
the ideas, tries to remember the words, and thus, at best, is sent away 
with a single fact, instead of a principle, explanatory ol a whole class 
of facts. The lessons are learned by rote ; and when a teacher 
practises upon the rote system, he uses the minds of the pupils, just 
as they use their own slates, in working arithmetical questions ; 
whenever a second question is to be wrought, the first is sponged 
out, to make room for it. What would be thought of a teacher of 
music, who should give his pupils the most complicated exercises, 
before they had learned to sound the simple notes? The points to 
which I would invite the regards of the whole community, is, whether 
greater attention should not be paid to gradation, to progression in a 
natural order, to adjustment, to a prei)aration of a child's mind for 
receiving the higher forms of truth, by first making it thoroughly ac- 
quainted with their elements. The temptation to this error is per- 
haps the most seductive that ever beguiles a teacher from his duty. 
In his desire to make his pupils appear well, he forgets that the great 
objects of their education lie in the power, and dignity, and virtue of 
life, and not in the numhcr of their recitations at the end of the 
quarter." 



SECTION VI. 

REASONS FOR HAVING BOTH SEXES ATTEND THE SAME HIGH SCHOOL. 

The almost unprecedented success which has characterized the 
introduction of the Union School System into Ohio and the neigh- 
boring States, has conferred great importance upon the decision of 
the question respecting the expediency of bringing the sexes together 
in the school room. The question is one which admits of many rea- 
sonable doubts, even in the minds of those whose experience would 
seem to have settled the matter conclusively. Sides are taken on it 
by those of the best ability, and the purest intentions, and that too 
at extreme distances. Even those who strenuously advocate the util- 
ity of bringing the sexes together for the purpose of dei'iving there- 
from additional stimulus for study, admit that the experiment should 
be tried guardedly — that the teacher under whose supervision they 
are to labor should be watchful, judicious, and lynx-eyed, to detect 
danger at a distance. They admit that the state of public morals 
may be such, that except under the most stringent regulations, the 
experiment would, in all probability, be a disastrous one. What- 
ever may be the intrinsic merits of the affirmative or negative of this 
question, it is quite certain that mere external circumstances, which 
are liable to be quite different in different places, may make it very 
proper or very improper to mingle the sexes in the school room. 
Provided the population of a town be large and compact enough to 
support a Union School in which boys and girls may study and re- 
cite In the same room, the character of the teacher, the number of 
scholars, the arrangement of the rooms, play-grounds, etc., and the 
general moral bearing of the parents and pupils might render it 
highly improper for them to be mingled together, and vice versa. 

To these varying and unmanageable circumstances we do not pro- 
pose to turn our attention, but rather to some of the general princi- 
ples which lie at the base of the question, and are the same at all 
times and in all places. 

In answering this question to ourselves, we naturally inquire : — 



[40 ] 

" Is tliere any fundamental difference in tlie constitution of the mo- 
ral and mental faculties of the male and the female being? " If the 
one is on a different plan from the other ; if one possesses any facul- 
ties or intellectual forces, entire and distinct, which have been denied 
to the other, or if they both possess faculties of the same kind but so 
modified in degree, that the training best calculated to develop the 
one, is not best calculated to develop the other, then certainly no 
advantage would be gained by attempting to educate them together, 
for it would be subjecting to the same process, things which are 
radically different, for the purpose of bringing about the same 
end. Whatever transcendentahsts may say about the essential 
distinction between the male and the female spirit, we believe that 
the great majority of enlightened individuals allow to both the 
same power of memory, of reason, of conscience, of imagination, 
and of will, and deny to the one the faculty which is not possessed by 
the other. They are both endowed with memory and reason, which 
are often of great value in the practical aflfairs of life ; and of con- 
science, and imagination and will, which are frequently quite useful. 
All these powers are to be developed and clothed with knowledge to 
perform the duties of human life, and we have not yet heard any one 
assert that the study of language, history, mathematics, etc. etc., 
makes the best preparation for the one, and not for the other. With- 
out any further consideration on this part of the question, we shall 
take it for granted that in the intellectual organization of the sexes 
there exists no rational ground whatever for devising radically differ- 
ent methods of training them, or for separating them during the pro- 
cess of school education. From this source, likewise, can be drawn 
no argument against their being educated apart : so that so far as 
intellect alone is concerned, it cannot be determined whether they 
woiild secure the best development separate or commingled. 

If then there be no essential difference between the minds of males 
and females, so as to require different appliances for their development, 
we shall next inquire whether the practical duties of coming life, the 
future pursuits, vicissitudes, trials, etc., etc., require, on the part of 
the male, a cultivation of different faculties, or of the same faculties 
in a different way, from those of the female. 

If the object of giving instruction to both sexes up to the period of 
choosing a professsion, is simply to impart a limited and imperfect 
knowledge of those branches of learning which are indispensable to 
all, even to the lowest classes of enlightened beings ; if it be to give a 
boy so much of arithmetical knowledge as will enable him to keep 



[ 47 ] 

accounts, and to perform other numerical calculations required by the 
necessities of actual life, and to give to the girl so much as will 
enable her to keep the market bills, and reckon the cost of anew 
dress, etc. ; if it be desirable during the days of their pupilage to im- 
part to each, only so much of the different branches of knowledge as 
the experience of others has shown will be actually necessary in prac- 
tice, then as the boy is to act in a different sphere from that of the 
girl, the acquirements most needful for his future success are not the 
acquirements most needful for the girl, and tliey are striving to attain 
different ends, there can be no advantage in bringing them together 
beyond that of mere convenience. But the mere acquisition of that 
knowledge, which shall be directly useful in practice alone, is not the 
great purpose which a well devised scheme of education seeks to se- 
cure. It labors after something higher and more (snduring. Acqui- 
sitions in history, geography, arithmetic, grammar, etc., may lie un- 
used, may slip from the memory and be lost in oblivion, but the train- 
ing which the mental faculties received during the process of their 
acquirement, will not go with them. The reason, trained to strength 
and activity, the memory rendered ready and retentive, the iniacina- 
tion chastened and enriched, will remain through all the scenes of 
life. If the future man needs a knowledge of the structure of lan- 
guage, so does the future woman ; if one needs to have the logical 
powers sharpened to pierce the difficulties which beset our pathway, 
so does the other. If one needs the wisdom of history, or of philos- 
ophy , or of mathematics, so does the other. Destined to pass through 
life together, and to share in its joys, in the performance of its duties, 
and in the endurance of its trials, they both need all the clearness 
which study can give to the judgment, and all the wealth which learn- 
ing can bestow upon the memory. Their wants are one. Up to the 
age of seventeen or eighteen, the means of mental cultivation are 
the same for both. The same teachers, the same text books, the 
same habits of study and recitation, are required by both. If, then, 
what we have advanced above be true, no argument drawn from the 
nature of the human mind, and no consideration deduced from the 
different spheres in which the sexes act, can be adduced against the 
scheme of educating them together, if there be no reason why they 
should be educated separately. If there be any reasons why they 
should not study nor recite in the same room, these reasons must be 
drawn from the danger of attachments and connections being formed, 
which dash the best hopes of parents and blast the best prospects of 
the parties concerned — such things have happened in schools which 



[ 48] 

were supposed to be conducted with the utmost care and foresight. 
We know of no reas ns why the sexes should be shut up from each 
other, during their education, hke monks and nuns of old, except 
those drawn from these considerations, and these all disappear when 
a teacher of calm judgment and vigilant eye, presides over the school, 
assisted by an arrangement of rooms, play-grounds, etc., suited to 
the composition of his pupils. 

Whenever the sexes are brought together in the study or recitation 
room, under influences suitable to restrain each witliin its proper 
sphere, who has not witnessed the increased harmony, the greater ex- 
ercise of mental effort, the impulse given to every noble aspiration, 
and the corresponding check imposed upon every thing rude and 
coarse ? 

^Nevertheless, theories, however well founded and beautiful, can- 
not carry with them the weight of influence which follows the suc- 
cessful trial of a single experiment. We will, therefore, introduce 
the testimony of individuals under whose supervision the experiment 
has been made. 

Mr. J. H. Shaw, Chairman of the School Committee, in Nantucket, 
Massachusetts, thus writes us in regard to the High School in that 
place : 

"Both sexes attend it. sit in the same room, recite together in the 
same classes, and pursue the same studies, as they do in all the 
schools — tints growing up together, and as we believe, much better 
prepared to live happily as men and women, later in life, than they 
would be if separated in childhood." 

Mr. A. Morse, Principal of the above school thixs writes : 

" Both sexes attend the same High School, recite in the same clas- 
ses, and sit in the same room, when reciting. They enter the room 
at difi'erent doors, have separate yards for exercise, are separated 
from each other while in the school room by an aisle, four feet in 
width, and sit on different benches while reciting. I know of no dis- 
advantages resulting from this arrangement, when the discipline and 
order of the school are of the riafht character. The advantages are 
essentially the same as realized from female influence in the subse- 
quent periods of life," 

Mr. A. Parish, of the Springfield (Massachusetts) High School, 
thus writes : 

" Both sexes attend the same school, sit in the same school room, 
and recite in the same classes. They are not allowed to associate, 



[ 49 1 

vir engage, in any way, in amusement together, or do anything which 
would be unbecoming young persons of their age, in genteel com* 
pany. They are under such discipline, and so much under the eye 
of their teachers, that no complaint has ever been made, or objection 
raised by parents. The advantages in favor of this feature are many 
and great; and an experience of fifteen years, in three schools, (of 
some note,) in which I have been engaged in that time, tends to con- 
Jirm my favorable opinion, that it is the true mode. The manners of 
boys may be softened and their character refined — their self-respect 
cultivated by the mere presence of the other sex. Girls may be 
taught to avoid that species of coyishness to which a majority, per- 
haps, are subject — of speaking without embarrassment, when they 
should, while they increase not a whit in that unbecoming boldness, 
rudeness I may say, which is so repulsive in the other sex. Indeed 
my experience leads me to believe that there is no place so favorable 
under the judicious management of the teacher, to cure a hoydenish 
girl as where she is made to feel that she is observed and estimated in 
all her movements by a large number of both sexes. But the great 
argument is — children are to be educated for future intercourse in 
society. Is not this one of the first and most important lessons they 
can be called to learn and practice? The teacher is in loco parentis 
— and the school only a large family — if what it should be — organi- 
zed for the specific purpose of establishing right principles of action, 
and preparing the child in all respects for the sober realities of the 
future. Until the course of nature is changed, and all shall be bro- 
thei-s without sisters, or sisters without brothers, in the same family, 
my opinion will remain, I think, unchanged. One important condi- 
tion however, is indispensable. Success depends almost wholly on 
the sound judgment, good taste and tact of the teacher, to direct the 
movements of the school. The teacher must be qualified for his post, 
or he may be the cause of infinite mischief by either neglect or mis- 
judged action." 

Mr. A. Wheeler, of the Worcester, Mass. High School, thus 
writes : 

"Both sexes attend our High School, study and recite in the same 
rooms, and in the same classes. The advantages of this arrange- 
ment are such as would suggest themselves to any reflecting mind. 
Our scholars are from twelve to eighteen years of age. They are 
under the eye of their parents till the hour of school arrives, and 
again after the school is closed for the day. The two sexes enterthe 
4 



[ 50 ] 

house at the extreme ends, by entrances specially appropriated to- 
their respective use, and carefully guarded as such by the teachers. 
They have no intercourse except under the eye of the teacher. Un- 
der these restrictions the sexes are believed to be as important to 
each other at this, as at any other time of life. It is believed that a 
very natural, and a very strong desire to secure the respect of the 
other sex, will, in either case, induce greater carefulness in their de- 
portment, increase self-respect, refine the sensibilities, elevate the 
taste, and improve the manners. And such we believe to have been 
the practical workings of the system. The discipline required for a 
mixed school, thouo-h milder, is much more effective for oood." 

L. Andrews, Esq., Superintendent of Public Schools, Massillon, 
Ohio, thus laconically writes: "Our male and female pupils, of the 
same grade, recite together and sit in the same room. We prefer 
this, — 1st, because we thus secure a better classification ; and 2nd, 
because the Girls humanize the Boys ; and the Boys impart to the 
Girls a manly intellectual independence and vigor." 

James Campbell, Esq., Principal of the Dayton, (Ohio,) High 
School, thus writes : " As the result of my experience, I would say 
that I am in favor of seating both sexes in the same room, and of 
having them recite in the same classes. Particular attention should 
be paid to their deportment, and no communication should be allowed 
between them at school, or in going to or returning from the same, 
I have not found this a difficult matter to enforce, and have never 
had but two or three pupils of either sex, who were at all trouble- 
some in this respect, and they were easily managed, having erred 
more through impulse than intention." 

To the foregoing reasons in favor of educating both sexes in the 
same Central High School, we would subjoin the following consider- 
ations, viz : 

It is a fact, and one pretty generally admitted too, that in most of 
the Female Seminaries of this country, there is a strong tendency to 
shun, or to teach superficially, the solid branches, and a proneness 
to attach an undue importance to what are styled the ornamerdal 
branches, or the accomplishments, as they are sometimes denominated. 
We allude to painting, drawing, penciling, mezzotinting, embroider- 
ing, &c.; to music upon the harp, guitar, piano, &c., &c.; which are 
quite as frequently introduced into these seminaries by those who 
have them in charge, as a sort of ad capiandum means to attract 
patronage, as with a view of adding valuable accomplishments to the 



[ 51 ] 

young ladies who attend tliem. And such is the morbid state of 
public sentiment on this subject in many localities, that it is seri- 
ously doubted whether Female Seminaries would be well sustained 
without these appliances ; although the result has been, in many in- 
stances, to substitute for a thorough and practical education, one ex- 
ceedingly flimsy and artificial, and to fill these seminaries with a 
species of educational foppery. Even in female schools, where the 
nccomplishtnents, as they are called, are not introduced to an unrea- 
sonable extent, and are not allowed to take precedence of more im- 
portant subjects, girls do not seem to manifest the same interest lu 
the solid branches, nor pursue them with the same rehsh, nor grasp 
them with the same vigor, nor master them with the same facility, 
that they do in schools composed of both sexes. The general opinion 
expressed on this subject by those who have had favorable opportu- 
nities for forming a correct judgment, seems to be, in substance, as 
follows : 

Belonging to the same school, pursuing the same studies, and re- 
citing in the same classes, it is quite natural for females to feel a 
strong desire to measure themselves intellectually with the other sex. 
In civilized lands, woman has ever evinced an ardent wish to establish 
the fact that she is endowed with mental faculties and capabilities 
equal to those of man ; and when a fair field of competition has been 
opened, she has been the last to shrink from the trial. It is so in the 
school, in the recitation room, when both sexes are brought togethei?.- 
In their emulation to excel, giris lose, in a measure, that overweening 
desire for music and painting, and all that superficiahty and foppery 
of education, so often manifested in female seminaries. The exam- 
ination of candidates for admission to more than thirty High Schools, 
and the annual examination of classes in those schools, show con- 
clusively how anxious giris are, and how diligently and perseveringly 
they will labor, to show that the mind of the female is naturally pos- 
sessed of as high an order of faculties as that of the male. 

In another regard, there is an advantage in having both sexes at- 
tend the same High School. It needs no argument to establish the 
fact, that in order to have a school accomplish its full measure of 
benefit, it is important that it should stand high in public estimation, 
be frequently visited by the friends of the pupils, and by citizens and 
strangers ; but in order to induce such visits, the school should be 
able to exhibit not only a judicious organization, an efficient super- 
vision, a high degree of excellent discipline, great thoroughness and 



[ 62 ] 

accuracy of teacliing, and great energy and spirit on tlie part of the 
scholars, but also a large variety of useful and interesting exercises ; 
and it is much easier to have these in a mixed school, Avithout re- 
sorting to what we have denominated the glossings and fopperies of 
education, than in a school composed entirely of one sex. 

We have gone more fully into the discussion of this topic, because 
we believe that the softening and refining influence of woman, in 
girlhood, should not be lost in our schools; and because we do not 
think that God has created the world of mankind, male and female, 
under svich circumstances of temptation, that they cannot safely min- 
-gle in the common sympathies of the school-room. Besides, the new 
-system of public schools, especially Union and High Schools, now 
rapidly advancing into popular favor, has given to this question an 
increased importance. And when we consider the mighty influence 
which modern civilization and modern morality have placed in the 
hands of woman, the question whether the sexes should mingle in 
study and recitation as they do in the family circle, and as they will 
izi after life, becomes intensely mteresting. No department of human 
exertion should attempt to shake off the grasp of her power from its 
springs of action. And our system of public schools, above all other 
schemes for the amehoration of the race, needs her genial influence 
as teacher and pupil, as well as friend and patron. 

We all know that the mutual desire to excel and win each other's 
approbation, is one of the strongest incentives which can be brought 
to bear upon the minds of young students ; that the tendency of boys, 
in schools, to rudeness and clownish manners, can be most effectually 
counteracted by study and recitation in the presence of the other sex ; 
that feminine delicacy and morbid sensibility need the influence of 
masculine vigor and activity to induce a healthy tone and prepare 
their possessors for the rough conflicts of life ; that each growing up 
in the presence of the other, insensibly acquires a keener discrimina- 
tion and a truer appreciation of the mental and moral character of the 
other, than could be gained in any other way ; in short, that as in the 
creation they were made male and female, and must together act the 
great drama of life, there is no paramount, controlling reason for ex- 
cluding them from each other while attendir^ school. 



SECTKiN VII. 

OPINIONS OF STATE SUPKRINTENDENTS AND PRESIDENTS OF SCHOOL 
BOARDS ON THE SUBJECT OF FREE HIGH SCHOOLS. 

On the occasion of the opening- of the Free Academy of the city of 
New York, Hon. Robert Kelly, President of the Board of Education, 
remarked as follows : 

" The history of this project can be told in a few words. The 
Board of Education took the first action in reference to it, by the 
adoption of a resolution, introduced by Commissioner Townsend Har- 
ris, July 27th, 1846, raising a Committee to report upon the subject. 
January 20th, lo47, a report was presented by Messrs. Harris and J. 
S. Bosworth, of said Committee. February 10th, 1847, the report 
was considered, and a Committee appointed to memorialize the Legis- 
lature, consisting of the same gentlemen, with Commissioner J. L. 
Mason. May 7th, 1847, the act was passed, imder which the institu- 
tion is established, with the provision, that the question should be 
submitted to the people, at the ensuing school and judicial election. 
The election occurred on the first Monday of June, 1847, and the 
result of the vote was, 19,404 in favor of establishing the Free 
Academy, to 3,409 against it — giving the enormous majority of 
15,995. The excavation for the foundation of this edifice was com- 
menced in the end of November, 1847. January 15th. 1849, the 
institution was opened for the examination of pupils. January 27th, 
1849, we are met to exchano-e cono-ratulations. 

" The establishment of this institution is an interesting circumstance. 
as connected with the subject of education. It is an important step 
forward, in this great cause. Our system of public education has 
been confined, hitherto, to Common School instruction. Something 
has been done for the advancement of higher education, in existing 
institutions, not strictly of a public character. The academies and 
colleges throughout the State have been aided by Legislative appro- 
priations, and they have thus been enabled to extend their usefulness, 
and bring the means of education they afi'ord within the reach of a 



[ 54 ] 

larger number, than would have been practicable otherwise. But 
this is the first attempt that has been made in our State, to introduce 
academic instruction as a part of the system of popular education. A 
narroAv view of the subject might lead some to suppose, that, inas- 
much as the main purpose of a public system of education is to ele- 
vate the mass of the population, all the means which can be con- 
trolled for educational purposes should be confined to the support of 
common schools, and that any sums, applied to the aid of higher 
seminaries of learning, are so much diverted and abstracted from 
that object. But those who have examined the subject most care- 
fully, unite in the opinion, that there is an intimate connection 
between the general education of the whole population, and the diffu- 
sion, to some extent, throughout society, of higher and more exten- 
ded culture. The larger the proportion of well-educated, intellegent 
men, there is in a free community, the wider, as a general rule, will 
be the diff"usion of popular education ; the more will its Avant be felt 
by those whom it is to benefit, and the more Avill it receive of effort 
on the part of those who guide public opinion. The effect of such 
institutions, as this one, upon the cause of general education, will be 
peculiarly happy, in the influence that will be exerted by the gradu- 
ates, all of whom will have received the solid basis of their educa- 
tion in the common schools. 

" The close connection between the Free Academy and the Com- 
mon Schools, is an important circumstance in its influence on popular 
education, and will, it is hoped, be productive of immense advantage. 
Being established as a part of the system of public education, the 
Free Academy is necessarily united with the Common Schools. The 
act gives the Board of Education poAver to establish a Free Academy 
' for the purpose of extending the benefits of education gratuitously 
to those who have been pupils in the Common Schools of the City and 
County of New York.' The qualification for admission into the 
former is a thorough knowledge of the branches taught in the latter. 
The education is continued onward, branching, as it proceeds, toward 
the various divisions of the field of knowledge, as the purpose of the 
pupils may lead them. Together, they are to form a complete edu- 
cation. It should be the effort of all concerned, to make it so com- 
plete and so valuable, that it will be sought by all classes of the com- 
munity, as the best that can be obtained. All will then receive the 
benefits of the education provided at the common cost, and will feel 
a united interest in the welfare and best management of the entire 



[ 55 ] 

system- The standard of instruction in the Common Schools may be 
gradually advanced, and the teachers will occupy, more fully and 
prominently, the position which their ability and general intelligence 
qualify them to occupy. They will have an important part to per- 
form in the accomplishment of this grand purpose. 

" The reciprocal action of the Academy and the schools will be 
highly advantageous to both. It is on the mental discipline, imparted 
in the Common Schools, that much of the success of the Free Acade- 
my will depend. And it will benefit them, by the introduction of 
greater uniformity, by exhibiting in immediate comparison the skill 
of the teachers, as evidenced in the preparation of the candidates they 
will furnish for entrance into the Academy; by raising up from 
among the people a body of teachers, to recruit their ranks and in- 
crease their numbers, and by the incitements it will constantly present 
to the industry of the scholars. If these advantages should result 
from this Free Academy, it will have accomplished a public good, 
that will be a full equivalent for the cost of its establishment and 
support. 

" But there are other public benefits which it will render, if pro- 
perly and successfully managed. It will take the children of the 
people, and send them out into life, endowed with such eminent ad- 
vantages of education, that they will be a blessing to society, adorn- 
ing their varied pursuits with their intelligence, enriching them with 
their discoveries, elevating and equalizing the rank and respectability 
of their widely different occupations, making industry honorable, and 
securing to labor its proper dignity. It will bring out genius, that 
otherwise might be lost forever. It will pick up, perhaps out of the 
very kennels of the city, many a gem of priceless value, and will 
polish it, and set it on high, that it may shed its luster upon the 
world. 

" The advantages of this institution, as its name imports, are free 
to all. It presents, to rich and poor alike, an open and an even field. 
Intellect, industry, and good conduct, are to win the prizes in this 
course." 

On the same occasion, Hon. F. Havemeyer, Mayor of the City, 
thus eloquently addressed the President of the Board of Education, 
and those who had assembled to witness the ceremonies : 

"Mr. President: — I have witnessed the interesting ceremonies of 
this occasion with much gratification, and I am sure this gratification 
is shared by the members of the municipal government, and the large 



[ 5C ] 

number of our fellow-citizens now present. I cannot, therefore, for- 
bear to express, in their behalf as well as my own, to the gentlemen 
of the Board of Education, who have had charye of the oroanization 
of this institution, our thanks for the fidelity, energy and spirit — at 
once judicious and liberal — with which they have fulfilled so impor- 
tant a trust. If there be any case in which government may safely 
and properly extend its action beyond the simple function of adminis- 
tering justice between man and man, it is for the purpose of instruct- 
ing and educating the citizens, on whom, in our country, must 
ultimately rest the responsibility for the wise and just exercise of all 
the delegated powers of society. The Common Schools are the basis 
of the system which seeks to accompish this great object — they 
reach the whole mass of the people — they put within the power of 
the humble and the poor the means of securing good instruction. 

" By an influence co-extensive with universal suffrage, they not 
only aim to tit the people to discharge the duties of citizens having 
an equal voice in the government of the country, but they tend to les- 
sen the inequalities of the social condition, by enabling all to enter 
with equal advantages, as far as education is concerned, upon all the 
competitions of life. To hold out the strongest of honorable incen- 
tives to diligence, in improving the opportunities afforded by the 
Common Schools — to generate a salutary emulation among the vast 
numbers whose education is to be received, and whose characters are 
to be formed in them, is an object of the greatest importance. And 
how can this be so fitly or so wisely done as in the manner proposed 
by this institution ? Not by prizes or distinctions, which are epheme- 
ral in everything, except in the flattery they administer to the vanity ; 
but by holding out the assurance that those who avail themselves 
most faithfully and effectually of the advantages offered in the Com- 
mon Schools, shall have the opportunity of gratuitous instruction in 
the higher departments of education. This institution, while it 
surmounts the Common School system, strengthens and adorns 
it. If wisely administered, it will act most beneficially upon the 
whole mass of those who are embraced in the inferior depart- 
ments. For my own part, I cannot regard with indifl^erence anything 
which is calculated to improve our system of public instruction. It 
is our chief security for good government, and the protection of the 
rights of person and property. 

" Our Public Schools are now forming the characters of those who 
will, in a brief period, supersede us in the active duties of life, and 



[ 57 J 

in exercising the powers of government. Our country is advancing 
in a career of accumulating wealth, population and power, which has 
no parallel. The influences of our Common Schools go wherever the 
foresight of our government extends our jurisdiction, or the adven- 
turous spirit of our people pours the tide of emigration. Amid the 
social and civil revolutions which are convulsing other parts of the 
world, our country is proceeding on its march to greatness, not only 
undisturbed, but with accelerated rapidity The imagination fails to 
anticipate what is to be the meridian of that age of Avhich this gene- 
ration sees but the dawn. Whether that meridian shall- be overcast 
by gloom and doubt, or shall be resplendent as its present promise, 
must depend upon the intelligence of the people. To have been even 
an humble instrument in founding or carrying forward systems of 
instruction which are materially to affect such a future, is no common 
honor; and this edifice, to-day consecrated to purposes so high and 
noble, will be a monument of the enlightened labors of you, sir, and 
your associates, as well as of the beneficence of our citizens, which 
has aided and sustained you in the accomplishment of the work." 

Extract from an Address delivered at the first Anniversary of the 
Free Academy, by Hon. Erastus C. Benedict, President of the Board 
of Education : 

"Fellow Citizens: — The deep interest, which, as citizens of New 
York, we all feel in this novel institution, renders unnecessary any 
apology for addressing you, on its first Anniversary, in relation to its 
interests and its prospects. I call it novel — but as a mere seminary 
of learning, it is by no means a novelty. The same sciences, here 
as elsewhere, are made the foundation of a thorough and well- 
balanced education, and the same literature and art, give to the use- 
ful the solid and the practical, the forms and grace of the agreeable 
and the beautiful, in intellectual and moral culture. But in some of 
its a.spects, it is new. No incorporation — no board of trustees — no 
stereotype charter — no ancient statutes — no antiquated formularies — 
no secluded cloisters — nor yet any speculative scheme of- untried in- 
ventions, crudities and novelties are a part of our system. Intoler- 
ance does not frown upon us, as we enter these halls ; nor bigotry, 
with sightless eye-balls insist upon our following her guidance. Infi- 
delity does not here sneer at any man's worsliip, nor ineligion 
trample on what any of us hold sacred. The pupils come to this 
building only for the purposes and during the hours of academic in- 
struction. They reside with their families, and are thus constantly 



[ 58 ] 

enjoying the sweet influences of home, and are under the affectionate 
care of parental responsibility. They worship the God of their fathers, 
at the altars where their families kneel, and they receive their reli- 
t^ious instruction and their ecclesiastical care, from the sacred teach- 
ers whom they have been taught to love and revere. 

"Candidates for admission to the Academy, are subjected to no test 
of faith, or lineage, or nation. Influence cannot facilitate their ad- 
mission, nor prejudice hinder it. They are required to be not less 
than twelve years cf age — to have been at least one year in the com- 
mon schools of the city — to pass a good examination in spelling, read- 
ing, writing, English grammar, geography, arithmetic, and the liistory 
of the United States." 

******* 

" It is a pviblic seminary, established by the government, for ex- 
tending, freely, the advantages of tlie highest education to all — not to 
the poor alone, nor to the rich alone — but to all alike. It is but a 
characteristic function of our government — manifesting, preserving 
and inculcating that republican equality, and generous freedom, which 
experience has shown to be the strength as well as the beauty of our 
institutions. The body politic here acts. The People, at their an- 
nual elections, choose their representatives for this purpose, as they 
choose their servants for other public duties, and these representa- 
tives, as an organized Board of Education — a sort of Academical 
Senate — appoint the professors, and establish the rules and regulations, 
from time to lime, as the lights of experience, or the wants of pro- 
gress, call for modifications and changtis ; and all the expenses of 
education are paid from the public treasury — as well for books, ap- 
paratus and stationery, as for the buildings and for the salaries of the 
instructors. 

"With the city for its founder, the public treasury for its endow- 
ment, the popular voice for its encouragement, and the popular 
sovereignty as its visitor, it should be what it is, the Free Academy — 
Free to all. A free fountain, where all may slake their thirst for in- 
tellectual and moral ctdture, in the pure and living waters of mere 
academic learning. 

" The results of our brief experience have met our highest hopes 
and removed all doubt as to the practicability, as well as the expe- 
diency, of establishing the institution. Every circumstance has been 
fortunate for its infant life, and has seemed to show that a kind 
Providence called it into being and has hitherto guided its steps. It 



[59 ] • 

was subjected to a popular vote in a heavily taxed community, and it 
was approved by more than five to one. It was fortunate in the Ex- 
ecutive Committee that gave form and direction to its first measures — 
Robert Kelly, my immediate predecessor, Thomas Denny. Joseph S. 
Bosworth, Samuel A Crapo, William T. Pinckney — in whom were 
combined liberal education, sound discretion, knowledge of the past, 
hope for the future, the strongest popular sympathies, the most abiding- 
faith in progressive republican institutions, with great practical wis- 
dom and the most conscientious devotion to their trust. It is fortu- 
nate in a well-situated and a well-constructed building, not without 
architectural beauty, yet simple, economical and permanent, an object 
of respect and pride to the pupils and to the citizens. It is fortunate, 
also, in a Faculty of professors, not only ripe and good scholars, in 
the departments of ancient learning and thoroughly furnished in the 
wider range of modern science and its more diversified applications 
to practical pursuits, but apt to teach, sure of the confidence and af- 
fection of the pupils, and fully impressed with the dignity and impor- 
tance of their task." 

* * ***** 

" The practical effects of the Institution are already felt. The 
community has received a new educational impulse. The high as 
well as the low, the rich as well as the poor, now seek, for their 
children, the first vacant seats in our too crowded schools, not only 
to obtain the excellent tuition which is given there, but also that they 
may be admitted here. The schools themselves are greatly improved, 
a higher tone is given to their instruction, and a more careful finish 
to its details. This influence upon the schools is worth more than all 
the Free Academy costs." 

* * * * * * * 

" Many of us remember the opposition with which the introduction 
of Common Schools in this State was met. That opposition led to 
discussion, which but endeared the system to the people. None of 
us have forgotten the circumstances under which the system was ex- 
tended to this city, and the fearful agitation, which almost maddened, 
the community. That agitation only fortified the new order of things, 
and the schools are already a just object of pride, as well as of affec- 
tion to the whole people. The change from expensive private schools, 
accessible to but few, and schools established and sustained by charity, 
to schools established and supported by the public will, at the public 
expense — the equal right of all — has demonstrated that the charity 



[ 60 ] 

system is antagonistical to our institutions, and cannot thrive under 
them, while the present system is the proper growth of them, and 
partakes of the prosperity and growth of the community. So the few 
objections to the Free Academies will but exhibit the exceeding sim- 
plicity and transpari^ucy of the principles on which it is founded, and 
reveal its excellence. Their gentle friction will keep the chain bright 
which binds the Instilutiou to the inner heart of our people." 
******* 
"If the State must supply schools for the people, surely it must be 
schools which will give us the education that we need in our peculiar 
circumstances — schools tha t will fit us for what our institutions re- 
quire us to do. All admit, that, of necessity, the American citizen 
must be a man of all work, and fit for all work. That is his charac- 
teristic distinction from the people of all other nations. To fulfill all 
his duties, he must be thoroughly furnished to every good work, and 
he must expect to hear the calls of enterprise, of ambition, of quiet 
usefulness, and of distinction, and he must be able to answer those 
calls. He steps from the work-shop to official station — from the uni- 
versity to the counting-room or the manufactory — from the plough 
and the anvil to the Senate House and back again — and all the time, 
all the people are expected to give an intelligent look to the foreign 
and domestic policy of the Republic, the making of her laws, the 
vindicating her honor, and contributing to her glory and strength, 
and annually, at least, to pass judgment upon her public functionaries. 
He is in fact, as he is in law, a portion of the sovereignty of the na- 
tion. The child that is born to-day in the palace of civilization or in 
the hut of want and obscurity, — what will he be ? In other countries 
there are probabilities. The one has a noble name and cultured lands, 
and will live in ease, a hereditary legislator and ruler. The other 
will be sent to the poor-hou.se or made a beast of burden in subter- 
ranean mines, or grow up in ignorance, brutality and crime. But 
here, the wisest of us may well hesitate before he can decide whose 
final lot of the two he would prefer. Here, no one is surprised tliat 
a mill boy should achieve fame in his youth, and never pale his in- 
tellectual fires, even after he has left three-score yeai-s and ten behind 
him. No one thinks it strange that a poor boy of foi'eign parentage, 
should, against all obstacles, rise to the highest honors as a soldier 
and a statesman, wield tliis great nation at his w411, and engrave his 
name indelibly on its history. A farmer's boy leaves the plough, 
and he soon stands alone, outshining all Greek and Roman fame, in 
the profoundness of his thought and the massive power of his elo- 



[ 61 ] 

quence. A wagon boy quits his team, and in middle life he has been 

Governor, Senator, Minister of State, and all along he has seen his 

rivals and his enemies, as well as his friends, hang in admiration on 

his lips." 

******* 

" Who can fail to see in the destiny of our institutions, as well as 
in their nature and history, that the education which the public should 
offer, to all alike, should be — not merely reading, writing, and cypher- 
ing — they are not education — but that which cultivates and invigorates 
the whole man, sharpens every faculty, strengthens all his powers, 
and multiplies his resources, — such diversified and thorough educa- 
tion as this Institution is intended to give. When we were of the age 
of these young gentlemen, the proud Old World beyond the deep, 
laughed at the vanity with which we spoke of our future. History 
has already recorded the progress, which hag far outstripped the 
loudest boast of our most sanguine fathers, and the little band that 
stood up to their destiny, in 1776, and wrought out a revolution, pre- 
dicted to fail by half the world, has become one of the greatest nations 
of the earth. Spanning across 17 degrees of latitude, and 60 degrees 
of longitude, it has become the nearest maritime neighbor of the 
oriental world and the islands of the Pacific. Providence has given 
to our teaching the great truths of republican liberty. Shall not every 
citizen be at least a silent practical teacher of our political creed '? 
Our whole history is but an example of the safe conservatism which 
it gives to progress. Changes that have been resisted with all the 
power of eloquence, and all the discipline of party, have succeeded 
each other with all the rapidity and surprise of the shifting scenes of 
the theater, — and the gi-eatest surprise of all has been the salutary 
result of such changes, and the harmony with Afhich all have ac- 
knowledged the wisdom of Providence in directing our destiny. What 
are to be the changes of the next 25 years ? The human mind is not 
able to conceive them. Long before that time, this city will be the 
center of the world, with daily mails to every continent, and daily 
news from the ends of the earth. Proud republican cities on the Pa- 
cific shall send the influence of our principles over all the East. What 
American heart does not swell with delight in the hope that this na- 
tion will be one day known among all the nations, as the vmiversally 
educated nation; and American Literature, American Art, American 
Intelligence and Cultivation, shall go wherever American Commerce 
shall carry our flag. Then shall the nations know the value of Free- 
dom, as, in our noble vernacular tongue, she proclaims the increase 



[ C2 ] 

of national glory, and wealth, and power, that come in the train of 
that intelligence, which is the necessary result of the constant ming- 
lin<>' of educated minds with educated minds, in all the acti^-e and 
productive pursuits of actual labor, as well as of skill and mere intel- 
ectual effort. Avarice will then join with Ambition and Patriotism 
in celebrating the triumph of this experiment. It is with feelings that 
I cannot express, that I look upon the course which the cause of pub- 
lic education is taking. It is beginning its march through the nations. 
It is with pride that I see our own proud State and this noble city of 
our affections taking a position among the first, in a cause so full of 
hope to humanity. Here immigrants receive their first impressions. 
Here departing travelers take their last look. We are a city set on a 
hill. I rejoice that we cannot be hid. I exult that it is my lot to-day 
to address these words of congratulation to the first audience assem- 
bled to witness the first literary anniversary of this Free Academy, 
I seem to see in it the beginning of a great movement, forward and 
upward, to that period, foreseen by the sacred prophets, when in 
their divine frenzy they were rapt into future times, and saw human 
society in the ultimate glory of its earthly destiny." 

The following extract is taken from the Thirty-second Annual Re- 
port of the Controllers of the Pubhc Schools of the City and County 
of Philadelphia, for the year ending June 30, ] 850 : 

"None of the operations of the school are of a greater importance 
than the examinations for admission. The reasons for this are suffi- 
ciently obvious. No private school in the city offers such advan- 
tages as those to be obtained in the High School. The student who 
is admitted to it enjoys privileges which elsewhere would cost him 
not less certainly than one hundred dollars per annum, and some af 
which could not be procured elsewhere at any cost. It is, therefore, 
not surprising that the examination, on which the question of admis- 
sion depends, should be regarded with a pervading interest, affecting 
the candidates themselves, their friends, their teachers, and the 
schools to which they belong. No candidate can be admitted or re- 
jected without affecting seriously the feelings and interests of an 
extensive circle ; and as the number of applicants is about three hun- 
dred and fifty annually, and these applicants come from no particular 
sections, but are found distributed very nearly in the ratio of popula- 
tion, the interest in the examination necessarily pervades every part 
of the city and county. 

" At the time when the High School was organized, the questioii 



[ C3 ] 

was raised, whether candidates from private schools should be admit- 
ted to the examinations. Had the decision been different from what 
it was, the public schools would probably never have risen much aboye 
the low condition in which they had previously been, and the High 
School itself would never have been more than one of the many 
similar institutions, with little comparative importance or influence. 
After considerable discussion of the question suggested, the Con- 
trollers at length unanimously resolved to I'estiict the admissions to 
pupils of the Public Schools. The result has been a greater and 
more beneficial change in the character of the lower schools than was 
ever effected probably in any similar institution in the same space of 
time. No one can read attentively the records of the Controllers 
without concurring in the opinion expressed by them in their Twenty- 
Sixth Annual Report, in which they say ' the influence of the insti- 
tution upon the other schools is believed to be worth more than all 
that it costs, independent of the advantages received by its actual 
pupils.' This influence is exerted solely through the examinations 
for admission. The privileges of the High School are held forth to 
the pupil as the reward of successful exertion in the lower schools. 
They are kept constantly and distinctly in his view, and operate as a 
powerful and abiding stimulus to exertion through all the sviccessive 
stages of promotion, from the lowest division of the Primary to the 
highest division in the Grammar School. The influence is felt by 
those who do not reach the High School quite as much as by those 
who do. It is an influence pervading the whole Public School 
system." 

Hon. Charles McClure, Superintendent of Common Schools of 
Pennsylvania, after a visit to the Public Schools of Philadelphia, 
thus writes to the President of the Controllers of said schools : 

" Sir : — I embrace the earliest opportunity in my power to express 
to yourself individually, the members of the Board over which you 
preside, and the Directors of the several school sections in Philadel- 
phia, my grateful acknowledgments of the kind attention bestowed 
upon me during my recent visit to the public schools of the first dis- 
trict. To you and them I am much indebted for the means so readily 
furnished to facilitate the attainment of my object, which was a more 
intimate acquaintance with the arrangement and mode of instruction 
in practice in the schools. 

" A due regard for the cause of popular education, as well as jus- 
tice to those who have the care and management of your public 



[64] 

schools, forbid that I should withhold the expression of my opinion 
respecting them. 

" Previous to my visit, I had learned enough in relation to thern to 
induce me to form a very high estimate of their character. A more 
intimate acquaintance with them, derived from personal observation, 
convinces me that I had not entertained too high an opinion of their 
excellence. Those who have been instrumental in framing and intro- 
ducing the admirable plan upon which the schools of Philadelphia 
are conducted, seem to have happily avoided the defective and im- 
proved the good features of the best systems of education adopted in 
parts of our own country and in Europe. The result, I apprehend, 
has been the establishment of one of the most perfect systems for the 
instruction of youth to be found in any community. 

" The plan of educating the youth of our State at public schools 
free to all, without distinction between the rich and poor, is most in 
keeping with republican principles, and best adapted to promote their 
dissemination and the perpetuity of the happy form of government 
under which it is our good fortune to live. It furnishes one of the 
greatest securities to the fortunate wealthy for the peaceable enjoy- 
ment of their possessions, while it extends the blessings of education 
to many who otherwise would be doomed to lives of ignorance and 
vice and crime. With my visit to the Central High School I was 
particularly gratified. The proficiency exhibited by the pupils in 
the various branches of instruction — their strict propriety of conduct, 
and the great desire manifested by them to acquire learning, are suf- 
ficient to convince the most skeptical of the ample qualifications of 
the professors and the superior excellence and ability of this school. 
These gentlemen richly merit the high reputation they have attained, 
and may justly claim for the institution tinder their care a rank amono- 
the best in any country. The development and improvement of the 
moral and intellectual faculties of the hoy, and the preparation of 
him to assume and discharge in a proper manner the responsibilities 
that will devolve upon him in manhood, I presume should be the 
leading object of his education — this end is most successfully attained 
by the mode of discipline and instruction in practice in the Central 
High School. While the most efficient means are used to give the 
pupils a knowledge of history and geography, and an introduction to 
the principal branches of science, they are at the same time taught 
their responsihility as reasonable beings. Their minds are imbued 
with the importance of law and order, and a proper respect for the 



[ 05] 

opinions and rights of others. They learn to depend on the cultiva- 
tion of their mental powers for honorable distinction, and to seek for 
happiness at its true source, in the control of the evil passions of our 
nature and a strict adherence to the pi'inciples of morality and 
justice. 

" The influence exercised by the High School upon the oth(!r 
schools of the district, is very apparent and hi^'hly beneficial. From 
these, it obtains its supply of scholars, and in their admission favor- 
itism and partiality are effectually excluded. The pupils of the lower 
schools look forward to admission into it as a most desirable promo- 
tion, which operates as a stimulus to excite them to an earnest appli- 
cation to the acquisition of learning. This influence pervades all 
the other schools, and without it I cannot believe the school system 
could be so eminently successful as it now is in Philadelphia. A 
strong argument in support of this opinion is found in the fact ascer- 
tained from the several reports of your Board, that in the first nine- 
teen years after tlie introduction of public schools into your district, 
up to the establishment of the High School in 1837, there were but 
seven thousand pupils ; whereas, in six years from that time, the 
number of pupils is increased to nearly thirty-five thousand. A 
knowledge of this truth is sufficient to dispel any doubt that may exist 
of the beneficial influence of the High School upon the system, Avhile 
at the same time it elicits the highest encomium for the Controller? 
and Directors of your schools.'' 

On the importance of a system of Graded or Classified Schools, 
terminating in a High School, Rev. Barnas Sears, Secretarj'' of the 
Board of Education of Massachusetts, thus writes : 

"Besides the intellectual excitement, resulting from studying to- 
gether in regular classes, there is one of a diff"erent kind, arising 
from a uniform gradation of the classes, and extending through all 
the grades of schools. In the ordinary district school there is but 
little steady influence exerted upon the pupils by the prospect of pro- 
motion. There is but one such school in the district; and this is 
entered by scholars promiscuously when the term begins, and left in 
the same way when it ends. There is no examination at the close, 
which entitles one to a certain place in the next school. When he 
enters another school, he is disposed of, in a class or not, as the 
teacher finds most convenient ; and then he has the prospect of re- 
maining in that condition to the end, unless the shifting scene shall 
chance to throAV open some other gap, which he can better fill. As 
5 



[ 60 ] 

the seasons revolve, the same scene is acted over and over again, as 
nearly in the same way as the semi-annual migration of the teachers 
will allow. The monotony of a ten years' sojourn in such a district 
school, aside from the sports and adventures accidentally connected 
with it, is such as none can adequately conceive who have not expe- 
rienced it. How different from all this sameness, and these endless 
repetitions, is that chain of advancement, with every link brighter 
and brighter, by which a child is conducted through a system of 
graded schools ! As he enters the lowest class of the primary school, 
he sees an unbroken series of promotions before him, till he shall 
have finished his course in the high school. From beginning to end, 
his ambition, without resort to personal rivalry, is appealed to, and 
he is every moment made conscious that his rank is fixed by none but 
himself. To those who are fully aware of the degree of sluggishness 
and intellectual stupor there is to be overcome in the majority of our 
district schools, it cannot appear unimportant to employ those natural 
and healthy stimulants which, by the arrangement here suggested, 
can easily be introduced and made to extend through the whole 
period of attendance on the schools." 

" It would seem superfluous to show how much better it would be 
for the community, if all would unite in the support of Public Schools 
of a high order, than to attempt to sustain a two-fold system of edu- 
cation, — Common Schools for the children of the poor, and acade- 
mies and private schools for the children of the rich. The children 
of the afl^luent ought, for their own sakes, to learn early, before their 
minds are vitiated with ideas of fictitious distinctions, to take their 
position according to personal merit alone. As this is the standard 
by which every one must stand or fall, the sooner he takes his proper 
place upon the true platform of American society, the better will it 
be for him and his country. It is equally important that the child of 
poverty early feel the genial influence of our free institutions ; that 
he learn even in the primary school, that the road to usefulness, 
honor, and happiness, is alike open to the meritorious from every 
class of society. Besides, divided as the people are in social life, in 
politics, and in religion, they need just snch a bond of union as can 
be easily formed in the school-room, and perpetuated through life. 
This is nearly the only ground that can be made common to all classes. 
Heaven forbid that it should be needlessly surrendered ! To secure 
all these ends, it will be necessary to relinquish the private school, 
and establish a system of Public Schools, with such gradations as 
the wants of the people demand." 



[ 67 ] 

Extract from the Annual Report of Hon. Joseph McKeen, Superin- 
tendent of Common Schools, for the city and county of New York : 

" The doctrine that the property of the State must pay for the edu- 
cation of the children of the State, is a sort of admitted truism, which 
is susceptible, however, of sundry explications. To say that one man 
has a right to another man's money, to educate the children of tho 
former, or for any other purpose, is not true ; but for the State to say 
that property shall be taxed for the benefit of the community in which 
it is, and to increase the security of the property itself, is true beyond 
all dispute. 

" There is no one item, in all our catalogue of public burdens, which 
ouo-ht to be hailed with so much tolerance and favor as that which 
goes to educate the youthful population. Education prevents and 
diminishes crime, gives security to property , lessens the expense of 
poor-rates, hospitals, prisons, and police establishments. It dispels 
the gloomy superstitions of ignorance ; it evokes the innate energies 
of genius ; it quickens and refines human enjoyments ; and it subor- 
dinates the mighty physical agencies of nature, which it finds out and 
applies to the service and comfort of man. 

" A liberal policy would then seem to commend itself to every good 
citizen in behalf of this beneficent instrumentality. It is the behest 
of wisdom that the common elements of necessary knowledge be made 
universally free. This is the common sentiment of the people of New 
York. The light of Heaven and the pure water from the mountain 
are free, both for man and beast, in all parts of the country where the 
works of God remain undisturbed. In this crowded city, the princely 
tax payers delight humbly to imitate the munificence of Heaven; and 
we see, when night comes on, a bright artificial light in all our streets; 
the pure gushing waters are in the free hydrants at the corners ; and 
the free schools are telling, day and night, in all parts of the city. No 
rich man sleeps the worse for his liberality; and every poor man loves 
his county the more by reason of its unsurpassed privileges." 

Hon. Christopher Morgan, Superintendent of Common Schools of 
the State of New York, thus eloquently writes : 

" The idea of universal education is the grand central idea of the 
age. Upon this broad and comprehensive basis, all the experience 
of the past, all the crowding phenomena of the present, and all our 
hopes and aspirations for the future, must rest. Our forefathers have 
transmitted to us a noble inheritance of national, intellectual, moral, 
and religious freedom. They have confided our destiny as a people. 



[ 88] 

to our own hands. Upon our individual and combined intelligence, 
virtue, and patriotism, rests the solution of the great problem of self- 
government. We should be untrue to ourselves, untrue to the memo- 
ry of our statesmen and patriots, untrue to the cause of liberty, of 
civilization and humanity, if we neglected the assiduous cultivation of 
these means, by which alone we can secure the realization of the 
hopes we have excited. Those means are the universal education of 
our future citizens, without discrimination or distinction. Wherever 
in our midst, a human being exists, with capacities and faculties to be 
developed, improved, cultivated and directed, the avenues of know- 
ledge should be freely opened and every facility afibrded to their unre- 
stricted entrance. Ignorance should no more be countenanced than 
vice and crime. The one leads almost inevitably to the other. Ban- 
ish ignorance, and in its stead introduce intelligence, science, know- 
ledge and increasing wisdom and enlightenment, and you remove in 
most cases, all those incentives to idleness, vice and crime, which 
now produce such a frightful harvest of retribution, misery and wretch- 
edness. Educate every child, " to the top of his faculties," and you 
not only secure the community against the depredations of the ignor- 
ant and the criminal, but you bestow upon it, instead, productive 
artizans, good citizens, upright jurors and magistrates, enlightened 
statesmen, scientific discoverers and inventors, and dispensers of a 
pervading infltience in favor of honesty, virtue and true goodness. 
Educate every child physically, morally and intellectually, from the 
ao-e of four to twenty-one, and many of your prisons, penitentiaries 
and alms-houses will be converted into schools of industry and tem- 
ples of science ; and the immense amount now contributed for their 
maintenance and support will be diverted into far more profitable 
channels. Educate every child — not superficially — not partially — but 
thoroughly — develop equally and healthfully every faculty of his 
nature — every capability of his being — and you infuse a new and 
invigorating element into the very life blood of civilization — an ele- 
ment which will diffuse itself throughout every vein and artery of the 
social and political system, purifying, strengthening and regenerating 
all its impulses, elevating its aspirations, and clothing it with a power 
equal to every demand upon its vast energies and resources. 

These are some of the results which must follow in the train of a 
wisely matured and judiciously organized system of universal educa- 
tion. They are not imaginary, but sober inductions from well authen- 
ticated facts — deliberate conclusions from established principles, sanc- 
tioned by the concurrent lesdmony of experienced educators and emi- 



[69 ] 

nent statesmen and philanthropists. If names are needed to enforce 
the lesson they teach, those of Washington, and Franklin, and Hamil- 
ton, and Jefferson, and Clinton, witii a long array of patriots and states- 
men, may be cited. If facts are required to illustrate the connection 
between ignorance and crime, let the official return of convictions in 
the several couris of the State for the last ten years be examined, and 
the instructive lesson be heeded. Out of nearly 28,000 persons con- 
victed of crime, but 118 had enjoyed the benefits of a good common 
school education; 414 only had what the returning officers charac- 
terize as a "tolerable" share of learning; and of the residue, about 
one-half only could either read or write. Let similar statistics bo 
gathered from the wretched inmates of our poor-house establishments, 
and similar results would undoubtedly be developed. Is it not there- 
fore incomparably better, as a mere prudential question of political 
economy, to provide ample means for the education of the whole com- 
munity, and to bring those means within the reach of every child, 
than to impose a much larger tax for the protection of that community 
against the depredations of the ignorant, the idle, and the vicious, and 
for the support of the imbecile, the thoughtless, and intemperate ? 

Every consideration connected with the present and future welfare 
of the community — every dictate of an enlightened humanity — every 
impulse of an enlarged and comprehensive spirit of philanthropy, 
combine in favor of the adoption of this great principle. Public senti- 
ment has declared in its favor. The new States which, within the past 
few years, have been added to the Confederacy, have adopted it as 
the basis of their system of public instruction; and the older Slates, 
as one by one they are reconstructing their fundamental laws and 
constitutions, are engrafting the same principle upon their institu- 
tions. Shall New York, in this noble enterprise of education, retrace 
her steps ? Shall she disappoint the high hopes and expectations she 
has excited, by receding from the advanced position she now occupies 
in the van of educational improvement? Her past career, in all those 
elements which go to make up the essential wealth and greatness of a 
people, has been one of progress and uninterrupted expansion. Her 
far-seeing legislators and statesmen, uninfluenced by the scepucism of 
the timid, the ignorant, and the faithless, and unawed by the denun- 
ciations of the hostile, prosecuted that great work of internal improve- 
ment which will forever illustrate the pride and glory of her political 
history. The rich results of the experiment thus boldly ventured 
upon have vindicated their wisdom. Is the development of the intel- 



[ 70 ] 

lectual and moral resources of millions of future citizens an object of 
less interest, demanding a less devoted consecrauon of the energies of 
her people, and worthy of a less firm and uncompromising perseve- 
rance? 
" Disregard ng the feelings of the present hour, and looking only to 

the future, will the consciousness of having laid the foundation for the 
universal education of our people be a less pleasing subject of contem- 
plation than that of having aided in replenishing the coffers of their 
wealth? 

In conclusion the Superintendent cannot feel that he has fully met 
the responsibility devolved upon him by his official relations to the 
schools of the State, were he to fail again urging upon the Legislature 
the definite adoption of this beneficent measure. Let its details be so 
adjusted as to bear equally upon all, oppressively upon none. Let 
every discordant element of strife and passion be removed from the 
councils of the districts, let the necessary assessment for the great 
object in view, be diffused over the vast aggregate of the wealth and 
property of the State. Then let teachers, worthy of the name, teachers 
intellectually and morally qualified for the discharge of their high and 
responsible duties, dispense the benefits and riches of education, 
equally, and impartially, to the eight hundred thousand children who 
annually congregate within the district school room. 

The children of the rich and the poor, the high and the low, the 
native and the foreigner, will then participate alike in the inexhausti- 
ble treasures of intellect, they will commence their career upon a 
footing of equality, under the fostering guardianship of the State, and 
will gradually ripen into enlightened and useful citizens, prepared for 
all the varied duties of life and for the full enjoyment of all the bless- 
ings incident to humanity." 



GENERAL SUMMARY. 



From the facts and opinions embraced in this Report, the follow- 
ing conclusions may fairly be drawn, viz : 

1. That there is now springing up in this country, and rapidly de- 
veloping itself in beautiful and harmonious proportion, a system of 
education in perfect accordance with the genius of our government 
and the free spirit of our people. 

2. That the system of Graded Free Schools is the only scheme 
which can satisfy the wants of the great body of the people, and give 
them that intelligence so much needed to guide them in their untried 
political voyage. 

3. That it is not to be restricted to the mere rudiments of a Com- 
mon School education ; for, in numerous towns and cities, it already 
embraces Central High Schools, and must ultimately include the 
College and the University. 

4. That it far surpasses all other schemes in symmetry, efficiency 
and economy; for, the educational statistics of a large number of 
States, cities and towns, prove that to educate a child under the new- 
system, costs only about one-third as much as is iisually paid in 
select or private pay schools. 

5. That like the rains and dews of heaven, it confers its benefits 
and its blessings equally upon all. It proposes to take the industrious, 
talented and worthy children of the humblest as well as the richest 
parent, and lead them along and upward by simple and beautiful 
gradations, developing in harmonious proportion their intellectual 
and moral nature, till they step forth American citizens complete. 

6. That it secures the services of teachers of more extensive scien- 
tific attainments, of more general intelligence, and of greater practical 
experience, than were usually employed under the old system ; be- 
cause, under the new system, the selection is made by an experienced 
and efficient Board of Controllers. 



c .... 



[ "2 ] 

7. That it insui'es greater zeal and fidelity on the part of the teacher 
in the discharge of his duties ; because his labors are now watched 
with greater solicitude, superintended Avith a more enlightened in- 
terest, and far better appreciated and rewarded, than they formerly 
were. 

8. That it creates a powerful and abiding stimulus to exertion on 
the part of both teacher and pupil ; for, being a graded system, it 
constantly encourages the hope of promotion, and thereby holds out 
one of the strongest incentives to diligence in improving the oppor- 
tunities which it affords. 

9. That this system of Graded Free Schools, emanating from the 
republican principles of our government, is destined to prevail over 
all others ; because it will give us the education that we need in our 
peculiar circumstances, — an education that will lit us for what our in- 
stitutions require us to do, — not merely reading, writing and cypher- 
ing, they are not education, — but that which cultivates and invigorates 
the whole man, sharpens every faculty, multiplies his resources, and 
makes him a man of all Avork, and tit for all work. 



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